


Jane and the Boys in the Basement

by theflamingfangirl



Category: Peter Pan & Related Fandoms, Peter Pan (2003), Peter Pan - J. M. Barrie
Genre: Alternate Universe - Boarding School, Alternate Universe - High School, F/M, Humor, M/M, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-04
Updated: 2014-07-04
Packaged: 2018-02-07 10:48:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 32,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1896234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theflamingfangirl/pseuds/theflamingfangirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jane Darling never wanted to go to boarding school. It was only at her mother's insistence that she uprooted her entire life to attend her mom's old school, halfway across the world in America. At Neverland Academy, she doesn't have any friends, a roommate, or even a real room. What she does have is the irritating group of boys that absolutely refuse to leave her alone, especially their idiot ringleader, Peter Pan. And despite her best efforts, Jane can't seem to lose the Lost Boys. </p>
<p>But despite their endless pestering, rowdy behavior, and annoying dispositions, the boys in the basement slowly begin to grow on Jane. As she learns to live with them, she may even learn to like them. But as for Peter Pan? Well that's another story</p>
            </blockquote>





	Jane and the Boys in the Basement

The sky was as gray and dismal as the prospect of the new school. Jane Darling had thought boarding school was a bad idea from the beginning, especially a school on the other side of the world. She only played along because her mother had been planning for Jane to go to the same prep school she had gone to for practically Jane's entire life. Her mother had been blabbing about how spectacular the school was for the entire plane ride and car trip. If Jane heard one more story about the year the football team won the championship, she was going to jump out the window of the rented van while it was still moving.

"Oh, I remember how wonderful that school was," her mother told her for the eight millionth time. "You'll have so much fun, Jane, and you'll make loads of new friends."

"Yes, Mum," she grumbled. "You've told me. Magical experiences, new friends, the adventure of my lifetime, etcetera. But are we completely positive this is the right school for me? I mean Neverland Academy? Even the name is stupid. It just doesn't seem practical."

"Don't be silly, dear," Wendy scolded. "You know, you've really got to stop acting so cynical. Have some fun; you're sixteen."

"I'm quite aware of my age. Youth is a curse I have to bear."

Wendy sighed. "Is this about your father? You know that he wants this for you. He'll still call you just the same, and you'll be home with Danny and I by the time he comes back-"

"No, it isn't about dad," Jane interrupted. It was basically true. She knew that logically, nothing would really change; her dad would still be far away and she still wouldn't get to see him until the summer; what she was worried about was her mother and Danny. Her father had told Jane to look after them when he'd deployed the year before, and it was going to be difficult to do that when they were in London and she was living in Massachusetts.

"Oh my, we're here!" her mother gasped. "Isn't it gorgeous?"

Jane surveyed the campus through the window. Huge, leafy trees shaded the red brick buildings and grassy open space, and over a hill, she could see a soccer field, tennis courts, and a swimming pool. Students wearing the navy and green uniforms sat at the cluster of stone picnic tables surrounding a huge fountain. "Eh. I mean it's fine, I guess."

Wendy pulled the car in front of the J. Rogers Administration Building, where upper student registration was supposedly located. "Are you excited, Jane? This is the place where you'll study until you graduate. Aside from vacations, you'll be living here for two years. Doesn't that seem just a little bit cool to you?"

Jane stepped out of the car and began ascending the stone steps. "Yeah it's super cool, Mum. Whatever."

The registration was pretty dull. There were a lot of papers to be signed, a lot of forms to be filled out, and a lot of freshman. In fact, Jane was the only new student registering for the junior class. Wendy had tried to persuade her daughter to begin attending Neverland when she was fourteen, but Jane had insisted that it would be better if she finished year eleven first, so that she would begin school in America as her classmates started sixth form. Two years later, that decision left Jane the only incoming junior in the entire school.

"Excuse me," a man in front of the desk announced. "Excuse me, thank you. Once the paperwork has been completed, parents should start making their way out. Please begin bidding your children farewell. Thank you."

"I suppose this is goodbye, then," Jane began. "I promise to call at least twice, and I'll-" she was suddenly smothered by the embrace of her mother.

"I'm just going to miss you so much," Wendy murmured, squeezing Jane as tight as she could.

Jane hugged her back. "I'll miss you too, Mum."

 

After her mother finally drove away, Jane approached the desk with her paperwork. "Hello, I'm Jane. I'll be a junior this year."

The man at the desk, who was short and rather heavyset, looked up nervously. "Um… yes ma'am. I'm Mr. Smee, Deputy Headmaster, um… Jane Darling, is it?"

Jane nodded and Mr. Smee handed her a stack of papers. "You'll be in the Barrie building in room... zero"

"Room zero? That's pretty strange, don't the numbers usually start at one? Would you mind telling me who my roommate is?" Getting a roommate was one of the few things she'd kind of been looking forward to. Living with someone for a year seemed like a pretty sure-fire way to make friends.

Mr. Smee wrung his hands nervously. "Well, you see, normally returning students submit dorm request forms at the end of the previous year, which all of the girls did. So, because everyone already has a dorm partner, you will be… by yourself."

"I'll be in a dorm by myself?" Jane repeated in disbelief.

"Well it's not a dorm, exactly," Smee admitted. "It's actually in the basement of one of the dorm buildings. We used to use the space for storage; in fact, half of the room is still being used for storage, but we've moved a bed, nightstand, desk, and chair down there."

Jane blinked. "So… what you're telling me, is that you've gone and put me, not only alone, but in the cellar? Which we now refer to as room zero."

"Well, yes, but you'll have the most space of any other student, and your own bathroom, so really it's just a trade-off."

"Is there at least an elevator or something?"

"No, you'll have to climb down two flights of stairs."

"Well that's just fantastic." Slowly, Jane gathered her paperwork, picked up her suitcase, and headed towards the door

"There may or may not be some rodent traps down there," Smee called after her, "but don't be alarmed, they're only precautionary!"

 

Mr. Smee had been telling her the truth; there were two flights of stairs for her to lug her duffel bag and suitcase down. There was a significant amount of dust and cobwebs hanging in the air. When she finally reached the bottom, she got the first look at where she was going to be living for the next eight months.

The room was dimly-lit, dusty, and made entirely of concrete. On one side, various bins and boxes were piled against the wall. She assumed this is what Mr. Smee had meant by the school still using half of her room for storage. On the other side, however, there was a bed, a nightstand, a desk and a chair, just like she had been promised. The only light came from a tiny light bulb hanging over her bed and a small dusty window that had been barred off.

"Great," Jane said to no one in particular. "Now I can't even escape." She tossed her duffel bag onto her bed in a huff. Her bed shook and wheezed before collapsing in a cloud of dust.

"WHAT. THE. HELL," Jane shouted. She examined the wreckage to see if anything was salvageable. The wooden frame had given out, and she doubted that it could be repaired, but the mattress seemed to be fine. In no time, she'd dragged the mattress off of the broken bed frame and gathered all of the wood into a pile on the other side of the basement. Sleeping on a bare mattress on the floor was not ideal, but she could make do, at least until they could bring her another bed. Jane made up her bed with the bedding her mother had bought her. Her new comforter was patterned like a galaxy, and it became the most attractive part of her entire room.

By the time she had set up all of her things, the sky had gone dark, leaving the basement even more poorly lit than it had been before. Her phone told her it was only seven thirty, but Jane was tired and decided to just go to bed anyways. She changed into sweatpants and a tee shirt, brushed her teeth, and climbed into her bed; after a long day of traveling, she was beyond ready to go to sleep.

She would have done so, too, if not for the rustling and banging coming from the ceiling. Jane stood up to go check out the spot where the noise was coming from; a ventilation shaft in the far corner of the basement. Suddenly the grating over the shaft was shoved aside and six boys dropped out of her ceiling onto a stack of boxes. They all looked to be about her age. They laughed loudly as they dropped out of the ceiling, talking about football or soccer or whatever they called it in this stupid country.

"What are you doing in my bedroom?!" Jane shouted at them, looking horrified. The laughing died down instantly as they all turned around to look at her. A boy who appeared to be the leader of their little gang looked at her slowly, his eyes moved quickly across her, like he was sizing her up. He had reddish-brown hair and a spray of freckles across his nose. He looked at Jane like he was both surprised and offended by her presence

"What the hell are you doing here?" he said.

"I asked you first, asshole," Jane retorted, crossing her arms over her chest. "You and your blokes dropped out of the ceiling; I believe I deserve an explanation!"

The lead boy looked offended. "Don't look at me like this is my fault! We've been hanging around in this basement for years, and now some mean British chick's gone and moved in. What are you even doing down here?"

"This is my room!" Jane cried. "I live here!"

"You live here? In the basement?" He took a step back "Are you a hobo?"

"No, I'm not a hobo!" Jane huffed. "I go to school here! I'm a student!"

"They put you in the basement?" another boy asked. He grimaced sympathetically. "That's rough."

"Yeah," Jane agreed, "and it's hard enough as it is without having to worry about hooligans crashing through the air ducts!"

"We're not hooligans," their leader countered, opening one of the cardboard boxes pulling out lawn chairs. The other boys followed his lead and began tearing through the other boxes, pulling out chips, sodas, pillows, a speaker, a camping lantern, and some other things.

"What are you doing!?" Jane exclaimed.

A tall, blond boy looked at her and cocked his head. "Setting up our stuff? You can't expect us to sit on the floor."

"I don't expect you to sit anywhere!" Jane hissed. "You can't stay here; this is my room, now!"

The lead boy looked around. "No, that half is your room. This half is still storage, so you have no claim over it. Therefore, we have as much right to be here on this side of the room as you do."

"You do not!" Jane protested.

The boy merely shrugged and continued to ignore her. Jane examined him more carefully than she had before; he had high cheek bones, brown eyes, dark eyebrows, and a crooked grin. His most prominent feature was probably his hair; messy and the approximate shade of old pennies.

"You can't just barge in and set up camp down here," Jane tried again. "I don't even know you!"

"I'm Peter. Peter Pan," The red haired boy said, sticking out his hand. "These are my Lost Boys."

"Jane." She turned to look at the rest of the boys. "So you're called 'the Lost Boys'? Do you have names?"

Peter grinned proudly. "That's Slightly, Nibs, Tootles, the Twins, and Cubby."

"Those are your names?" Jane asked the boys. "How'd you end up with names like that? Your parents must hate you."

The dark haired boy who Peter had addressed as Tootles stepped forward. "Those aren't our real names, of course. We're all on a soccer team together, and Peter just likes nicknames."

"Well, what are your real names?"

"My name is Tony Dillanson," the boy told her, "and this is Simon Haines, Will Nibb, Max and Nick Johnson, and Bobby Clifford."

"Thank you, Tony. Is there any chance you and your friends could leave so I could go to sleep?"

Tony looked down at his watch. "It's only seven forty-two."

Jane sighed. "Yes. I know what time it is. Could you leave anyways?"

"I'm sorry, probably not," Tony told her, looking genuinely apologetic. "Peter's really stubborn, and we've been hanging out down here nearly every night for five years. I just don't think you'll be able to convince him to leave willingly. You could tell on us, of course, and get a teacher to force us out, I doubt they'll catch us though. It'll take you, like, twenty minutes to climb all the stairs and go bring a teacher back down, we'll be long gone by then."

Jane scowled. The blonde boy, Will, patted the chair between him and Peter. Grudgingly, she took a seat, arms folded tightly over her chest.

"So Jane," Peter said. "Care for a snack? A drink? A beer?"

"You keep your beer down here." Jane closed her eyes. "Of course you keep your beer in my room."

The boys all laughed, Peter smiled at her "Well obviously we have beer. We also have vodka, wine coolers, tequila, and a bottle of sake, but we're saving that one for a special occasion."

"Jeez. I'll take a Coke, thanks," Jane grumbled.

"What grade are you in, Jane," Peter asked her, still grinning broadly

"I'm a junior," she informed him.

Peter looked surprised. "Really? You're in the same grade as us then. I assumed you were a freshman; since you're so short, and you've got that whole schoolgirl-bob going on."

Jane ran a hand through her hair. "Well, I assumed you were an asshole, it looks like I was right about that one."

"I didn't mean to offend you," Peter laughed. "But you do have a schoolgirl-bob, and you are really short. I mean, what are you, five foot three?"

"Five two," she mumbled, glaring at him.

Peter smirked. "So what brings you to good old Neverland Academy? With that accent, you can't be from around here."

"I'm not," Jane told him. "I'm from Kensington."

The boys stared at her blankly; she sighed in exasperation. "It's in London. In England."

"Why are you here, then?" Bobby asked. "We're kind of far away from where you live."

"My mother went to school here when she was a girl," Jane told them. "It's always been her dream to send me here, though frankly, I'd rather be back home. I don't care much for boarding schools. Or Americans."

"We're not all bad," Will protested.

"Well then, you haven't represented your country that well so far. Judging by you guys, Americans are loud, rude, annoying, dick heads," Jane informed him. "Here's to hoping the rest of the country is better."

"It's not, really," Tony said glumly. "Not at this school, anyways."

Jane leaned in. "Why? What are the people at the school like?"

"Most of the kids here are rich snobs," Peter told her. "The guys are all jerks, and the girls are prissy and spoiled. In my humble opinion, the Lost Boys are the only decent group of people in the entire school. If you hang around with us, I could show you how to navigate the complicated social structure of Neverland Academy."

"But I don't want to 'navigate the social structure,'" Jane protested. "Look, no offense, but I'm not really looking to join your gang, or anyone's gang, for that matter. I just want to go to my classes, keep my head down, and survive until I can go home."

Peter looked surprised. "You… don't want our help? Are you sure?"

"Positive," Jane said. "As I stated earlier, I really just want you to leave me alone. I mean, do you ever plan on climbing back up through your hole in the ceiling. We have classes tomorrow morning, and according to the schedule they gave me, breakfast is a seven. I am exhausted, and I just want to go to bed."

"It's barely eight o clock." Peter opened a can of soda. "C'mon, Janey. Sit with us a while."

Jane sank back into her chair. "Fine, if you promise to never call me 'Janey' again, you may stay here a little while longer. And after tonight, I don't want to see you here again, alright?"

Peter grinned. "You've got yourself a deal."

..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Apparently, Peter was not too keen on actually keeping his promises, as he and the Lost Boys continued to hang around in Jane's dorm room. Nearly every night. For several hours. The evening would usually start out with Jane protesting and attempting to chase them out with a lacrosse stick or a crowbar or a mop; then they would set up their lawn chairs and snacks and go right on ahead with their business. At some point, the boys began to consider Jane a part of their gang; so they started to sit next to her at lunch, walk with her in the halls, and study with her after school. Spending so much time around the boys allowed Jane to get to know them better. After she got past the initial layer of teenage boy, they were all actually pretty nice guys.

Will, a forward on the school's soccer team, was basically a Disney prince: blonde, tall, well-liked, and extremely polite. He was dating a really nice girl named Lily, and they were generally regarded as the cutest couple in the school since the seventh grade; Jane wouldn't have been surprised if they ended up getting married. Simon was witty and sarcastic, and a pretty aggressive defender despite the fact that he was very thin and preferred playing his clarinet to practicing soccer. He claimed that he only played in the school band because his mother made him, but it wasn't very hard to tell that he secretly loved it. Bobby was the goalie of the team. He was perhaps a bit dopey and clumsy, but he was kind and had a good heart. He desperately wanted to be funny, but the majority of his jokes weren't humorous at all. At first, Max and Nick were difficult for Jane to tell apart, as they both played mid-field on the team and sported identical brown hair, bright eyes, and wide grins, but with a little effort she got the hang of it. While they were both funny and smart, Max was louder and more outgoing where Nick was a bit more reserved, though it seemed to Jane that Nick was actually the leader of the pair. And then there was Tony, Jane's favorite and probably her closest friend. He was kind and smart, with dark hair and long eyelashes, but because he was soft-spoken and shy, he seemed rather insignificant next to the rest of the Lost Boys, a fate he seemed to accept. Tony wasn't very good at soccer; in fact, Jane suspected that Peter only kept him on the team because they were friends. Tony quickly became friends with Jane after she paid him a little bit of attention, which she suspected was occurrence that happened somewhat rarely. After that Tony pretty much followed her around everywhere, but Jane didn't mind; he didn't bother her and she thought he was very sweet.

The only one she had an issue with was Peter. As top goal scorer and captain of their soccer team, the other boys looked up to him as their leader, but Jane found him to be loud, bossy, rude, and arrogant. Peter was constantly bickering with her about the smallest things, and he refused to leave her alone. He strutted around the school like he owned it; just because he was athletic and had dated half the girls in the school. Jane couldn't understand what people saw in Peter; when she looked at him, all she saw was a stuck up dick-head flaunting his stupid cocky grin and washboard abs like he was a king. Jane had him figured out from the moment she met him, and there was no way Peter Pan would ever trick her into thinking he was a good person.

 

By the time October rolled around, Jane had given up completely on getting the boys to find a new place to hang out. At around eight o'clock almost every evening, the Lost Boys came crashing through her ceiling. Today, Will was the first to pop his head through the grate.

"Hello, Jane!" he said cheerfully, dropping gracefully to the floor. "How are you doing tonight?"

"I'm fine, thank you," she responded as the rest of the boys crashed into the room. They quickly set up camp on the floor, grabbed food, and switched on the lantern.

"Hey Jane, did you finish your science homework?" Tony asked.

She shrugged. "I think I'm going to do it during my lunch tomorrow."

"You're lucky you have science after lunch," Max commented. "It's a whole extra hour to finish your homework, and Ms. Crock gives the biggest work load of any of our teachers."

"I know." She grinned. "It's awesome."

"Yeah, seventh period science is pretty much the bomb," Peter said, looking over at Jane. "Right, Physics Buddy?"

Jane rolled her eyes. She was cursed with, not one, but three classes with Peter: Spanish, Math, and Science. He insisted on sitting almost right next to her in every class so he could steal her pencils and pull her hair. It was getting pretty old. "I am not and never will be your Physics Buddy. Nor will I be your Math Buddy, Lunch Buddy, or Su Amigo de Espanol. And if you keep sitting next to me, I will be forced to kick your ass."

Peter put a hand over his heart. "Ouch. That hurt me. It really did."

"Hey Peter," Simon asked. "Are we gonna have practice tomorrow? It's supposed to rain."

"Of course we're gonna have practice."

"It's supposed to be a torrential downpour," Simon protested. "The football team isn't practicing, the cross country team isn't practicing; we're going to be the only people dumb enough to go outside."

"Damnit, Slightly. If you keep complaining we're going to be running tomorrow."

"Swimming is more like it," Simon grumbled.

Peter stood up. "C'mon guys; stop being such sissies. I haven't cancelled a practice all year, and I won't stop because of a little bit of bad weather."

After twenty minutes of practicing in the pouring rain, the visibility became so bad that Peter admitted defeat. There wasn't much use in holding practice when they couldn't see the ball. Jane had been invited to come observe their practice from underneath an umbrella, and they looked so ridiculous that by the time they gave up, she was laughing so hard that she fell out of her chair.

Back inside the gym, Jane stood in the circle of shivering, sopping wet boys. "Wow Peter, I thought only sissies stayed inside during bad weather."

He glared at her so intensely that she was worried he might hurt his eyes.

"You guys are lucky I'm considerate," Jane told them as she passed out towels. "I nearly didn't bring these so I could watch you shiver and teach you a lesson about listening to the weather reports."

"Thanks Jane," the team chorused.

Jane took a seat next to Peter. "How's it going?"

"You know, you don't have to be so smug. It's not like I made it rain. How could you-"

"PETER!" a voice shrieked from the other side of the room. Jane looked up to see little blond girl wearing fairy wings over her uniform sprint across the gym and throw herself at Peter. "Why are you all wet? Did you go out in the rain? Why'd you do that?"

Peter grinned and lifted the girl onto his lap. "Hey Tink, what are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be with Ms. Hollows?"

"She's next door in the dining hall because it's afternoon snack," the little girl told him. "She said I could come see you as long as we stay in here."

"Who's this?" Jane asked, amused.

"Tink, this is Jane. She's in some of my classes," he told the girl. "Jane, this is my little sister, Tinkerbelle. She's in first grade."

"Tinkerbelle?" Jane repeated. "Is that another one of your nicknames?"

"Not exactly," Peter responded. "Her full name is Patricia Isabella Pan. Now, we could have called her Patty or Trish or Izzy or Bella, but my parents, being the pretentious ass-hats they are, refused to shorten it in any way. But a baby who is learning to talk can't exactly pronounce all the syllables in Patricia Isabella, so at one point she began to call herself Tinkerbelle. I was twelve, and I thought it was hilarious, so I started calling her Tinkerbelle, and I persuaded the nanny to call her Tinkerbelle, too. So now it's her name, though we mostly call her Tink."

"Also it makes me sound like a fairy princess," Tink added matter of factly.

"It most certainly does," Jane agreed.

Tink examined Jane like Peter had when she first met him. The little girl's eyes narrowed. "Are you Peter's girlfriend?"

"God no!" Jane responded. "We're not even really friend friends. Ugh, that's disgusting."

Tink nodded. "Well good. I don't want Peter to get a girlfriend."

"Why not?" Jane asked.

"Because he's already busy with soccer, and school, and his friends, and if he gets a girlfriend too, he won't be able to spend any time with me," Tink explained.

Jane laughed. "Don't worry, I don't think there are any girls who want to date your brother. Not any sane ones, anyways."

"Thank goodness," Tink sighed. "He hardly ever plays with me as it is."

"Hey, that's not true!" Peter protested. "I spent like an hour and half playing with your Barbies last week!"

Tink scoffed. "The way you were doing it hardly counts as playing. You barely even changed their outfits, and when you did, you picked out ugly stuff! I might as well have been by myself."

"You should get back to your class. Let's see…" Peter scanned the room. "TOOTLES! Get over here!"

Tony walked over to where they were sitting. "Hey guys. How's my favorite fairy princess?"

"Tony!" Tink scrambled out of Peter's lap and stood up on the table. "My noble steed!"

Tony bowed. "Your majesty."

Peter lifted his little sister onto Tony's back and laughed. "You are to escort the princess back to the dining hall so she may find her class. Leave at once, by decree of the king!"

"Onward!" Tink screeched as Tony trotted out of the room.

"I like her," Jane commented.

Peter smiled. "You and me both."

.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Although the weather had been growing consistently colder since the semester began, Jane felt a bit unprepared when the temperature suddenly plummeted; as though winter had arrived in the middle of October. But there was hardly time to take note of the weather as the teachers increased the workload. Ms. Crock, their physics teacher, was laying it on especially thick, with tests, quizzes, and projects nearly every week. On one particularly cold Friday night, the last school day before an important lab was due, Jane set up a meeting with her teacher to get extra help.

Ms. Crock was actually very nice, but many people were terrified of her. She was an excellent teacher, and most of her students learned a lot from her class, but she was extremely intimidating nonetheless. She always wore a tight bun, a pencil skirt, and very high heels, so high that she seemed to look down on everyone. If you did the work and participated in class, she would probably like you, but if not, you were in trouble. Of all things to know about Ms. Crock, the most important is that you did not want to get on her bad side.

But, she was willing to review material with Jane at eight o'clock on a Friday. Though it took nearly three hours (yes, she was THAT confused about the lab) Jane finally felt confident that she would be able to produce a relatively decent lab report. By the time they were finished, it was dark and the rest of the school was completely empty. Which is why Jane was surprised when someone walked through the door of the science classroom.

"Why is there a student in the school so late at night? Shouldn't the students be back in their dorms by this hour?"

The question came from the school headmaster, Professor Hook; a tall, broad shouldered man with a thick black beard and a penchant for red ties. Hook was in control of the entire faculty, he could change the schedule as he wished, and he was the head of discipline. He was also Peter's arch nemesis. Peter and Hook had despised each other since Peter had first arrived at Neverland Academy as a seventh grader and had accidentally set fire to a dumpster (long story). As much as he disliked him, Hook couldn't expel Peter because Peter's father gave a lot of money to the school every year, and Peter hadn't technically done anything expellable, anything Hook could actually prove him guilty of anyways. So Peter messed with Hook and got lots of detention, but no real consequences. The teachers lived in fear of Hook. Everyone except for Ms. Crack, that is.

"What, might I ask, are you doing in my classroom?" Ms. Crock snapped back. She crossed the room in long confident strides, her heels tapping loudly on the linoleum floor. Click click click click.

Professor Hook flinched. "I was wondering, um, why you were still here with, uh, this student?"

For some reason, Ms. Crock scared him. The rest of the teachers obeyed Hook's every will because he had a nasty habit of firing people who disagreed with him. But as the top performing teacher in the school for six years and running, Ms. Crock had almost complete job security, not to mention the fact that she didn't take shit from anybody. She hated Hook as much as Peter did, if not more, only while Hook hated Peter right back, he ran screaming from Ms. Crock. Rumor had it she nearly got him fired a couple years back and he was afraid she would do it again. More than anyone else in the school, Professor Hook held a permanent spot on her bad side.

"I set up a meeting with Jane to discuss my class," Ms. Crock responded curtly. "Is there an issue with the use of my own classroom to educate a young mind?"

"I-I suppose not?"

"Is that a question?" Ms. Crock walked back across the room to her desk. Click click click click.

Hook winced. "No it isn't."

"Alright, you may show yourself out."

Hook opened his mouth as if to say something, but then closed it and walked out the door, shutting it softly behind him.

"What an idiot," Ms. Crock muttered. "So, Jane, is that all you needed help with?"

Jane smiled. "Yes, thank you."

"Wonderful." Ms. Crock began gathering up her things. "Have a nice Halloween then."

"Oh right, I forgot about that." Upper school students weren't allowed to wear costumes or celebrate, so the holiday had slipped Jane's mind. She'd never really paid much attention to Halloween anyways. "Well thank you, I'll see you Monday."

 

The walk back to her dorm was dark and cold. Her phone had died, so she had very little light to go by as she made her way back to her dorm. She stopped for some mac and cheese on her way back. The dining hall had closed hours ago, but Jane had made friends with a few of the janitors in her first months, so they occasionally bended the rules for her, like allowing her to reheat some leftovers. It had been a long day, in a long week and she really just wanted to get to bed, though she was sure she'd find the boys in her room. Maybe she could convince them to leave her alone for once, or at least talk quietly. But as she descended the stairs to her basement, she heard started to hear music. With a feeling of dread she realized it was coming from her room. Jane flung open the door to see that there were people everywhere. Some of them were dancing. Many were wearing costumes. Most seemed drunk.

"Jane!" Tony grabbed her by the arm. "Hi!"

"What the hell are you doing?" Jane shouted over the noise.

"It's a Halloween party," Tony yelled back. "I texted you about a million times but you didn't respond."

"My phone's dead," she shouted. "Why are you holding a party in my room?"

Tony shrugged. "It's where we have it every year. People would have gotten confused if we changed the location."

Peter suddenly appeared behind her and threw an arm around Jane's shoulders. "Hey it's our buddy Janey! How's it hanging homegirl?"

"Are you drunk?" Jane asked, pushing him off of her.

He laughed. "Maybe a bit."

"He's on beer six," Tony supplied. Jane rolled her eyes.

"Why do you look so appalled?" Peter asked Jane. "What's the matter, haven't you been to a party before?"

"Of course I've been to a party, idiot."

Peter laughed and patted her on the head. "I bet you've never even had a drink."

Jane swatted his hand away angrily. "Oh I have definitely had a drink. Many drinks in fact; I'm from England, remember."

"I don't mean drinks of tea, sweetheart."

"You have a skewed view of the UK, sweetheart," Jane snapped. "We know how to drink. Much better than a cock like you, anyways. I definitely don't stumble around making a complete fool of myself."

"Oh yeah?" Peter challenged. "Well for every drink you have, I'm gonna have two."

"That's completely unfair."

"I knew you couldn't do it," Peter taunted.

"No, it's unfair for you. You're already drunk off your arse, you'd be drinking twice as much as me, and I have an incredibly high tolerance for alcohol."

He smirked. "Jane you must weigh like eighty five pounds."

"One hundred and fifteen," she shot back. "I'm like completely muscle. My doctor says it's both mysterious and unhealthy."

"Whatever, I'm doing it."

Jane sighed. "You're stupid and I need a drink."

"Well then I need two." Peter replied with a grin. "Pick your poison."

"Whiskey and coke." Jane grabbed a glass and started mixing herself a drink. "Cheap beer is for frat boys."

"This is going to end very badly," Tony worried.

"Probably." Jane slid a drink across the table to Peter. While staring him directly in the eye she downed her own unflinchingly. Peter looked a little bit surprised, but followed her lead and did the same.

"You're going to lose," Peter taunted.

"I can't lose because I'm not playing your game. You can do whatever you want; I'm not involved," Jane answered. "Though if I was playing, I would win."

Peter laughed condescendingly. "Bring it on, Shortstack. Pour me another."

 

One hour and many beverages and many bad decisions later, neither participant had given in. After consuming copious amounts of liquor, Peter was wasted and completely out of it, and Jane, who really did have an unnaturally high alcohol tolerance, was just buzzed enough to find his drunken rambling humorous rather than irritating. Apparently when Peter drank, he talked non-stop using elaborate hand gestures and animated facial expressions.

"Jane? Jane, ya know what I need?"

Jane smirked. "What's that?"

"I needa girlfriend," he slurred. "Right? That'd be totally awesome."

"I'm sure it would be Peter." Jane thought drunk Peter was a lot nicer than regular Peter. He didn't pull her hair, or call her names, or make jokes about her looking like a sixth grader. If nothing else, he was definitely a lot more entertaining; he'd just given a three minute monologue about why he suspected clouds had feelings.

"No but really I wanna girlfriend," Peter restated. "A good one too. Ya know what I mean?"

"Sure, Peter."

"I've hada lot of girlfriends." Peter nodded his head. "Yeah… like a lot of em."

"Uh huh, that's nice." Jane started pouring them another round of drinks.

Peter stared up at the ceiling. "It's like, all of the girls here're like… total sissies. I mean lookat them, they're all prancin' around with their stupid girly-ass dresses an' shit."

"Clothing is not a measure of worth," Jane told him absentmindedly as she mixed drinks.

"Well, yeah I know that, like whatever." Peter waved his hand dismissively. "But really they're all so silly and petty, ya know? Most of the girls here're so stupid an' they're runnin' around being bitches to each other. I just don't get it."

"You and me both, mate."

"An' they just follow me around, and laugh at everything I say and we make out and shit, well I like that part, but it's just boring as hell. I wanna girl who's interesting to talk to, an' doesn't take shit from people, an' kicks ass, and-"

"That's really nice Peter, have a drink." Jane handed him a cup.

"Remember, I need two. But you just have one an' I need two cause… I need two."

Jane handed him a second glass. "Yeah, I know. I've got you covered."

"Thanks, man. You're really awesome." Peter squinted into the glass. "What's in this?"

"Sprite, vodka, rum, grenadine, and pineapple juice," Jane answered. "It's pretty good."

"Oh okay." Peter took a gulp. "Hey, this is, uh, fruity. Like… ya know…fruits. Yeah. Tastes like fruits."

"Gotcha. You almost ready to slow it down? Maybe take a break, sit down, admit defeat-"

He shook his head. "No way. Feelin' great!"

"Are you sure about that? You're looking rather dazed."

Peter stood up on the table. "Let's PARTY!"

 

Another hour passed. Alcohol flowed, Jane mixed drinks, and Peter turned into an incoherent, stumbling mess. Jane had to give him some credit; he wasn't a quitter; but this bout of stubbornness was not doing him any favors. The party was slowly dying down and kids were making their ways back to their dorms. By one thirty, only Jane, Will's girlfriend Lily, and the Lost Boys were left.

"What a night!" Simon sighed as they packed the party stuff back into cardboard boxes. "That's got to be one of our best."

"Totally," Will agreed, before resuming shoving his tongue down his girlfriend's throat. Instead of drinking or dancing or talking to people, Will and Lily had just kissed in a corner for pretty much the entire party. Jane doubted whether it would have mattered to them if there wasn't even was a party going on around them, or if they even would have noticed.

"Yeah, that was awesome," Max said. "I made out Kristy Halk for like ten minutes. What a babe. Even if she's slept with half the school."

"Oh Kristy's really nice," Jane commented, as she lifted a black light into a box. "Some people say she's a bit of a slag, but I think that's sexist bullshit. If she wants get with loads of boys, more power to her. Kristy's body, Kristy's rules, right?"

"I know! Nobody'd be giving her shit if she was a guy," Max replied.

"Exactly."

"Well, Nancy Carmichael kissed me and I just kinda stood there," Nick added. "She's cool I guess, though I dunno if I actually want to date her. Whatever. It's just… life, ya know?"

Simon laughed and threw a plastic cup at Nick's head. "You're drunk,"

"He's not as drunk as that one," Bobby said, pointing at Peter.

Peter had lain down on a table and was laughing for no reason and babbling to himself about shoelaces. Tony walked over and poked him. "There's no way we're getting him back through the ceiling. He'll fall and die."

Jane sighed. "I suppose the idiot can stay here if you can't get him back to your room. It's my fault he's smashed anyways."

"Well no one made him drink," Tony argued. "He's just too stubborn for his own good and can't hold his alcohol. How are you so sober, by the way? You've been drinking all night, and Peter's a mess, but you look completely fine."

"My dad comes from a family of bartenders," Jane explained. "Alcohol tolerance runs in the family, and I'm not exactly a stranger to parties, either. Contrary to what you seem to believe, we have some pretty wild ragers back home. I also I ate beforehand and I've been drinking water. I mean, I probably shouldn't drive, but I feel pretty good."

"Sound logic," Tony commented.

"Could you help me get him into the bathroom?" Jane asked, grabbing one of Peter's arms. "I don't want him near me, because I don't like him, and he'll probably be sick anyways."

Tony nodded grimly. "From prior experience as his roommate, I'd say that's a safe bet."

They deposited Peter on the floor of Jane's small bathroom, and he muttered something about his shoe before falling silent. Jane rolled her eyes. "Pathetic drunk bastard. I'll check on him in an hour or so to make sure he's not dead."

"Okay." Tony followed the rest of the boys (and Lily) through the ceiling. "I'll come back down in the morning to retrieve him. Thanks for not making me drag his limp body through the ventilation shafts."

"You owe me," Jane responded, taking off her shoes and climbing into her own bed. Screw pajamas. She was already wearing sweats and a tee shirt; and it's not like she was going to take off her clothes while Peter was in her room. Coherent of not.

"Good night, dumbass," she called out into the dark. "I won, you lost. I am the winner. I will never let you forget this, Peter Pan. Never."

.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Tony appeared back through Jane's ceiling a little after ten in the morning to find Jane reading on her bed. He climbed down onto a stack of boxes and jumped down to the floor. "Good morning!"

"It's hardly morning anymore," Jane said, raising an eyebrow. "I was under the impression you'd be back to retrieve the drunk a bit earlier than this. Did you oversleep?"

"Yes." Tony looked guiltily at his shoes. "It's just, like, it started snowing outside, and I know I didn't actually have to go outside to get down here, but it just felt too cold to get out of bed. And I don't really set an alarm on weekends, and usually it's Peter who's up early. I'm not really a morning person. Or a night person. Actually if I had it my way, I'd sleep for like fifteen hours a day. But anyways, I'm really sorry 'bout being late and all."

"Well fine, I suppose you are forgiven," Jane said with a laugh.

"Thanks," he said gratefully. He looked around the room. "So… how's it going?"

Jane jerked a thumb towards her bathroom. "Why don't you ask your friend Pukey over there?"

"Yo Pukey," Tony called, "how's it going?"

He received only a groan in response.

Tony winced. "Jeez, that doesn't sound good. I assume he was sick?"

"Pretty much the whole night," Jane responded. "And then the whole morning. He's so hung over; it's really pathetic."

Tony frowned. "Well I can't exactly bring Peter back up to our room if he's still sick; we don't have a bathroom. And we can't exactly bring him to nurse or he'll get suspended for drinking."

"What? I thought you were going to take his drunken ass back upstairs in the morning. We had a deal!"

"I'm sorry!" Tony protested. "But I don't want to get him in trouble!"

"That's so unfair," Jane grumbled.

"Do you want me to watch him down here?" Tony offered. "I was kind of supposed to volunteer with his little sister's day care class, but I could probably cancel."

"No you go," Jane sighed. "You have a prior commitment. You babysit Tinkerbelle; I can babysit Peter."

"Thank you so much. I owe you one!" Tony edged back towards the ceiling vent. "Um, I'm actually running a little bit late for that volunteer thing I mentioned, so I should probably get going…"

"You are terrible at planning," Jane yelled at him at he climbed into the air duct. He flashed her one last grin before replacing the grating and disappearing into the darkness.

Jane drooped at the prospect of watching an ill Peter the whole day. She glumly crossed her room and opened the door to her bathroom. Peter was curled into a ball on the floor with an arm thrown over his face. Jane leaned against the doorframe. "Well, it looks like it's just you and me, mate. Depressing as that is."

Peter curled himself even tighter. "Shhh."

"Fine," Jane whispered. "I'll be try to be quiet."

"I'm cold," Peter complained. "I need a blanket or something."

Jane rolled her eyes and grabbed a throw blanket and an extra pillow off the end of her bed. She tossed them next to Peter. "This is just sad. You're such a wimp."

"Shut it; I'm dying. As this is your fault."

"For the last time, it is not," Jane argued. "Nobody made you make a stupid bet and drink yourself into oblivion. It's not my fault you have poor judgment and can't hold your alcohol."

"If you don't whisper, I'll be forced to stab you," Peter hissed. "And it was totally you're fault; you coerced me."

"That's no way to talk to the person who's going to be stuck mothering you all day," Jane scolded. "My bed side manner directly correlates with your behavior."

Peter wrapped himself in the blanket and leaned up against the bathtub. "You are nothing like my mother."

Jane huffed. "Well I'm sorry I'm can't-"

"No that's a compliment," Peter interrupted hoarsely.

"You don't even like your own parents?" Jane asked.

"More like they don't like me."

Jane sat down beside him. "What do you mean? Of course they like you. They're your parents."

"Try telling them that. My mother and father care more about cocktail parties and private jets than actually caring for their children."

"Wait you have a private jet?" Jane asked excitedly.

Peter glared at her. "It belongs to my dad's company, but for all practical purposes: yes, we have a plane. And a boat. And a huge ass mansion just outside LA. What my family lacks in affection it makes up for in wealth."

"Wow," Jane mused. "I'd heard you were loaded, but a plane and a boat? That's just impressive."

"Well, I don't really get to use any of our stuff," Peter replied. "My parents have been shipping me to boarding school for years, and even when I was little I always got stuck at home with a nanny. Like, apparently we have a vacation home in Vail that I've never been to, and a racehorse I've never seen."  
"That blows."

"Yes it does," Peter agreed, rubbing his eyes. "Whatever though, I don't really need anything anyways. My parents don't like me, so what? I can take care of myself."

Jane smirked. "Says the boy who's lying on the floor of my bathroom; too weak to get himself a blanket."

"This doesn't count; I'm still standing by the argument that this is your fault."

"Is not," Jane retorted. "And you've got to stop talking like your some kind of lone wolf. I don't think I've ever met anyone who needs such constant affirmation from his friends. It's a bit sad, really."

"I don't do that!" Peter argued. "And besides, they all have their own stuff to deal with. Like the Twins have divorced parents and live in two houses in different states when they aren't at school. And Cubby gets picked on a bunch because he's a total dork. And Slightly's parents are constantly on his case. And Nibs is here on scholarship. And we're all like eighty-five/ninety percent sure Toodles is gay."

Jane nodded. "Yeah, I'd kind of suspected about Tony, but I felt like it'd be bad to bring it up."

"We had a group meeting about it in like eighth grade," Peter said. "We're all cool with it. But anyways, everyone has enough issues of their own to handle without worrying about my sucky life."

"If it makes you feel any better, I don't have it so easy either," Jane told him. "My dad's stationed in Afghanistan until June. I haven't seen him in over a year. My mum keeps telling us he's going to be fine, and he's a doctor who presumably isn't getting shot at, but you can't ever be sure. My little brother, Danny, believes every word she says, but I'm old enough to know she can't really know that he'll be okay. And then my mum and Danny are all alone back home, and I don't know if they'll be okay either, even though that doesn't even make sense as they aren't in any danger whatsoever. I don't know; I just worry."

Peter winced and closed his eyes. "Well at least your family will love you once you see them again."

"It's not a competition, jerk."

"If it was I would win," he said. "I mean, it's really, really terrible that your Dad's in the army, and even though you said he's probably going to be fine, that's still scary. It also sucks that you're really far from home and you're worried about your mom and your brother. It probably feels terrible to miss your family. I don't miss my parents. I'm angry at them, and disappointed, I guess, but I definitely don't miss them. And my parents certainly don't miss me; or Tink either. Did you know the main reason they chose this school was because it's one of the only boarding schools in the country that accepts elementary school students? I can understand dislike for their angry teenager, but what kind of person ships off their six-year-old? That really pisses me off."

"Okay," Jane responded after a while. "You can win if it makes you feel better."

"It doesn't." Peter scowled. "I still have self-absorbed parents, a little sister to worry about, and a hangover on top of everything. I feel so fucking sick; I think I might die, and I'm afraid that I won't."

"I repeat: that's your own fault. But your life isn't all bad, you know. You go to a nice school, even if the headmaster's a maniac; you make pretty good marks; you're captain of the football team, or soccer, or whatever you call it; your little sister is a sweet heart; and you've got a pretty fantastic crew of friends. So maybe your mum and dad don't give a damn about you, but Peter, you have a pretty decent life. But the hangover you're stuck with. Can't flip that into a positive light."

Peter groaned and sat up onto his knees.

"You alright?" Jane asked.

"Nah I think 'm gonna puke again." He coughed. "Yep, definitely gonna puke again."

Jane stood up quickly. "Well that's disgusting. I'm going to get you a Gatorade, because you're probably dehydrated and also I pity you."

She was sure he would have thanked her if he wasn't busy throwing up. After all, they did just have a pretty detailed heart-to-heart. Even if Peter was probably only talking about his life at all because he was sickly and sleep deprived, Jane logged all the information down in her brain anyways. The tragic back story made him seem almost… like a decent human being.

 

Upon actually getting outside, Jane realized getting Peter something to drink might have been a more extravagant favor than she'd thought, due to the snow blowing sideways in the air. She decided to make a run for the dining hall, but was still ended up covered in snow by the time she got there. Jane shook off her boots and pulled open the door.

"Hey Jane!" A voice greeted her from inside a swarm of screaming six-year-olds. The voice belonged to Tony, whose volunteer job had led him and his group of small children to the dining hall. From what Jane could see, they appeared to be doing a craft.

"Oh hello." Jane smiled. "I like your crown."

Tony adjusted his sequined and feathered construction-paper headdress. "Yeah, it's pretty snazzy, right? I'm the king of our spaceship, so obviously I need the crown, though apparently there's talk that I'm actually an evil alien who's planning to overthrow the kingdom, so I might be dethroned. Ya' know; I'm just rolling with it."

"Space politics can be tough," Jane commented.

"Yeah," Tony agreed, pausing momentarily to hand a juice box to a boy in light-up sneakers. "Well, how's Peter doing?"

"He was throwing up when I left," Jane answered. "I'm actually here to get him a Gatorade or something."

"Are you talking about Peter?" Tinkerbelle suddenly appeared next to Tony's legs. "Why is he barfing?"

"Uh, your brother's feeling sick," Tony told her. "But don't worry; he'll be good as new by tomorrow. Or Monday, maybe."

Tink nodded knowingly. "Did he eat too much Halloween candy?"

"Something like that," Tony answered. "But Jane's taking good care of him, right?"

"For sure," Jane said automatically.

Tinkerbelle gasped. "We need to make him a card! So he'll feel better!"

She immediately rushed over to the craft table and grabbed some tape and a pair of safety scissors. "Where's the glitter glue? Somebody better give me the glitter glue or else!"

 

"Your sister says to get well soon," Jane announced from the doorway of her bedroom. She took off her hat, coats, and boots and threw them down by the door. "She made a card and everything."

When she was greeted with silence, she approached the bathroom. "Peter?"

Peter was wrapped in the blanket, fast asleep, on the floor. It was probably a good sign that he was sleeping, so Jane decided not to wake him up. He hadn't slept since the day before anyways, and between the partying and drinking, he was probably exhausted. Jane set the card and the Gatorade next to him and tiptoed out of the room, shutting the door softly behind her.

.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Slowly but surely, the semester began to draw to a close. The weather got colder, and Jane was given a space heater to keep her basement warm. In the blink of an eye, it was nearly Thanksgiving.

"I don't understand why you have a vacation now," Jane complained. "I mean tomorrow you all go home for a week, come back for finals, and then go back home for Christmas. It just doesn't make sense."

"Well people want to spend thanksgiving with their families," Will explained, "and Hook refuses to link the two breaks. I mean arguably it would be like six weeks off of school, which would be awesome, but incredibly long. Anyways, to answer your question; yes, we go home for a week, we come back for two weeks, and then we go back home for three weeks."

Jane huffed. "It doesn't even make sense that Thanksgiving is such a big deal. I mean, big whoop, you had a meal with the native people, why do you feel the need to celebrate it every year? It's like every other week you people have another holiday, like I get up and everyone's all like 'Happy United States Day! We need to don the traditional hats and sing the national anthem. God Bless America!'. Seriously, it's getting pretty old."

"That's sounds about accurate," Simon agreed. "We do have an absurd amount of holidays. But, hey, at least we get school off."

"Does it really count if I have to stay at school?" Jane wasn't going to be flying home for Thanksgiving. She didn't see a point in flying across the world for one week, especially because there wasn't any holiday in London, so she'd be spending eight days with only her mother and be jetlagged nearly the entire time. The school allowed students to stay in their dorms over Thanksgiving break (though not over winter break, for some reason) and provided meals and occasional group activities. Students also had to check in twice daily with a teacher so the school could confirm with parents that their children were, in fact, being looked after. Jane was not really looking forward to it.

"It's not like I have it that much better," Bobby protested. "I have to spend Thanksgiving at my grandmother's house, with almost my entire extended family, which basically means I get to be interrogated by all of my relatives about where I'm going to college and when I'm going to get a girlfriend."

"Well Max and I have to spend the first four days with my dad and his twenty two year old girlfriend," Nick said, "and then drive seven hours to our mom's place and listen to her complain about our dad."

"Typical Johnson family vacation," Max added sarcastically. "Sounds fun, right?"

"I'm going to have to sleep on a pull-out couch in my own house because my uncle got released from prison and now lives in my bedroom," Will said.

Simon nodded. "My parents are going to lecture me on the importance of getting into a good college, and then force me to practice violin for four hours a day."

"My parents are dragging me up to our ski house, and then they're going to make me ski." Tony shuddered. "Every single year, I'm forced to fall down a mountain in a ridiculous snow suit for an entire week. I always try to back out, and they always shame me into going. It's torture."

"Well, I guess I'm the lucky one. I get to stay here and bond with my good pal, Jane Darling." Peter wrapped an arm around her, which she quickly shoved off. Like Jane, Peter wasn't going home over break. His parents were going on a cruise to some island in Indonesia, which left Peter and Tinkerbelle stuck at school. With Jane. And none of the other Lost Boys. Basically, it was Jane's own personal version of hell.

The feeling of dread set in almost directly after the last car pulled away from the school. Sure, there were other kids staying over the break, but not kids she knew, or kids Peter knew. It might as well have been just Jane and Peter alone in the school.

"Looks like it's just you and me then." Peter grinned. "Are you ready to become besties?"

Jane looked at him in disgust. "Ew. No. Why? I'm… I'm going back to bed. Just… no."

"You don't want to hang out with me?" Peter put a hand over his heart. "Ouch. That hurts."

"I don't like you." Jane walked back to her dorm. This week was going to be even longer then she'd feared.

 

Jane spent the first two days of break pretty much sleeping the whole time, partially because she was tired from week after week of classes and partially because she could. Peter actually didn't come banging through her ceiling, mostly because she'd threatened to hit him with a baseball bat if he disturbed her rest. But by Monday, she was feeling completely rested and felt obligated to reemerge into the public. Of course, Peter pounced on her the moment she left her room. "Hey Jane-a-nator. Long time no see."

"If you don't cool it with the dumb nicknames, I swear to God I will end you."

"Well someone's feeling feisty today. Luckily, I have found us something to do."

Jane cocked her head. "What do you mean? What are we doing?"

"I'm taking you down to the lower school to visit my sister," Peter said. "My sister is the only kid below sixth grade who's stuck at school over break. The stay-over-break thing isn't actually supposed to apply to elementary schoolers, but my parent bought the school a library a few years back, so rules don't actually apply to them. Long story short, Tink is playing alone with a teacher all day. Because I feel bad for her, I've been going to hang out with her, but she claims I am 'bad at playing' because of my 'boy energy'. So I figured it would be better if you came along too."

"Fine, I'll do it."

Peter's face lit up. "Really? Great! Follow me then."

It was rather depressing to see Tinkerbelle trying on princess dresses all by herself, but she immediately cheered up when Peter walked through the door. She dropped the feather boa she was holding and bolted across the room to greet them.

"Hey, Tink," Peter smiled, giving his little sister a hug. "How's it going?"

Tinkerbelle pulled away from Peter and eyed Jane suspiciously. "Why did you bring that girl?"

"Jane is going to play with us today."

"Well if she stays, you have to promise to play with me, and not with her, okay?"

Peter laughed. "Of course."

"No, really promise," Tink insisted. "Whenever you bring a girl, you always say you'll pay attention to me, and then I turn my back and you're kissing her on the mouth. So you need to pinky promise me you won't start kissing this Jane girl on the mouth when you think I can't see you. Because I see everything."

"Aside from that vaguely threatening remark," Jane said. "You really don't have to worry about that, because I will never, ever kiss your brother. Ever. I'm feeling a little bit repulsed just imagining that actually."

"We're definitely not going to date," Peter added. "I don't think we'd actually be classified as friends,"

"More like… unfriendly acquaintances. Or foes."

"Well that's a relief." Tinkerbelle walked back over to dress up box. "Now you both need fabulous outfits; we're going to a ball."

.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

"Something is missing," Tinkerbelle stated, putting her hands on her hips. "Help me out here, what's missing?"

"More glitter?" Jane asked.

"No, that's not it… something else." She clapped her hands together. "I know! Lipstick. How do we feel about purple?"

"Please not purple lipstick," Peter groaned. "Haven't you done enough?"

Tinkerbelle rolled her eyes and began rooting through the make-up. "Don't be stupid. Of course you need purple lips."

"Oh yes, I agree completely." Jane struggled to keep from laughing. "You're nowhere near finished, Peter. We need you looking great for the Royal Flower Festival; it's only the biggest social event in the kingdom."

"Jane, when this is over, I am going to take a fork and stab y-"

"Found it!" Tinkerbelle chorused, holding a gold tube of lipstick. "Now, shut up so I can put this on."

Jane thought Peter had far too much death in his eyes for someone who was letting his little sister to do his makeup. It had taken a lot of persuasion, but Peter had eventually accepted Tinkerbelle's requests. Jane had to give the kid some credit; Tinkerbelle was incredibly persistent. She'd whined, attempted blackmail, and even cried; though her tears had cleared up suspiciously fast when Peter finally gave in. Since then, Peter had been decked out in a striped vest, an overcoat, a tie, and a feather boa worn as a sash. Peter and Tinkerbelle's parents may have been distant and neglectful, but they certainly kept Tink's dress-up box well-furnished.

"Now for the finishing touch…" Tinkerbelle pinned a flower into Peter's hair and took a step back to examine him. "He's perfect! This must be some of my best work yet."

"He's gorgeous," Jane agreed. Peter flipped her off while Tink wasn't looking.

Tinkerbelle turned to Jane. "Alright, your turn, Jane."

Jane raised her eyebrows. "Wait, me!?"

"Oh yes," Peter exclaimed, pushing Jane into the chair. "Yes, yes this is going to be fun. Karma's a bitch, isn't it Janey?"

"Language," Tinkerbelle reminded. "I have little ears!"

"Sorry Tink," Peter apologized, grinning manaically. "Just super pumped is all."

The little girl nodded. "Understandible. She is going to be the most beautiful!"

"Almost finished…" Tink said.

"Are you sure?" Peter asked. "Couldn't we, like, draw a cockroach on her face or something?"

Tinkerbelle looked at him like he was crazy. "Nooo… Why in the world would we do that?"

"Cause she doesn't even look that bad!" Peter complained. "I look like some kind of circus hobo, and she just looks-"

"Like a princess," Tink finished. "There, I'm finished. You look beautiful, darling. You'd better hurry, or you two will be late to the party!"

Jane looked in a mirror and laughed. She wore a red velvet dress over her tee shirt and jeans, a silver belt, a tiara, and in addition to about a pound of cheap eye shadow she had a rhinestone flower glued to her cheek. Tinkerbelle clasped her hands together and admired her two makeovers. "You two look marvelous. Now you have to go to the party."

"Aren't you coming to the party?" Peter asked. "You are the princess, right."

Tinkerbelle smacked her hand to her forehead. "Oh my god, Peter. I'm not the princess now. Right now, I'm the famous fashion designer, Lady Victoria Stardust, who's disguised as a maid. Princess Tinkerbelle is on a secret mission to retrieve the stolen diamonds from the evil Lord Brussel Sprout, which I will be acting out tomorrow."

"Well sorry," Peter said. "Your little game is the most complicated story that has ever been told."

"I know," Tinkerbelle said. "And I play a lot of roles, so you're going to have to learn to keep up."

Peter sighed.

"Okay, now you are at the ball." Tinkerbelle pulled an IPhone and a speaker out of a bag and put on some music. "Jane is Princess Janine Sparklemore of the Candy Cane Kingdom, and Peter is Prince Percival the Brave from the Island of Stars. There is a deep rivalry between your two kingdoms because of the war, and you don't like each other."

"Not hard to imagine that," Peter whispered. Jane smirked.

"Prince Percival is expected to marry soon, because his brother just turned evil and murdered his father, who was the king of the Island of the Stars. Princess Janine is in line for the throne because her parents were possessed by demons and killed, but she's considering fleeing the Candy Cane Kingdom because there are rumors that the people are going to overthrow her and lock her in the dungeon to rot."

"Good god, where do you get this stuff?" Jane asked. "This is the bloodiest imaginary history I've ever heard."

"Peter says the Disney Channel is for losers," Tinkerbelle supplied. "So instead we watch his shows. I like Game of Thrones, the best. Also Breaking Bad."

Jane swatted Peter's arm. "She's six, Peter! Breaking Bad is about meth, and Game of Thrones is practically porn!"

"Hey, I show her other stuff too," Peter protested. "Like Supernatural and Downton Abbey and Sherlock and stuff, it's not my fault she likes the drug show and the medieval sex show best!"

"Like any of those shows are much better," Jane scoffed. "Just because you have great taste in TV programs doesn't give the excuse to show them to a kindergartener!"

"AHEM!" Tinkerbelle interrupted. "May I finish the backstory?"

Jane frowned disapprovingly at Peter, but nodded and fell silent.

"So Prince Percival wanted to dance with Madame Cupcake, but she shot him down because she is madly in love with Katrina the Space Captain. Then he tried to dance with her sister Madame Dragonfire, but she turned him down because she just turned into a werewolf and is concerned about hurting those around her when she turns."

"Jeez, I'm having no luck tonight," Peter commented.

"But then," Tinkerbelle gasped, "enters Princess Janine! And Prince Percival sees her and realizes she's the most beautiful girl in the whole party. In the whole world, in fact! And he rushes across the ball room to ask her for a dance! Now this is where you to begin your parts. Annnnnnnd action!"

"Hold up, cut! Wait a second," Jane interrupted. "I thought the whole point of bringing me here was to not date him. So… what's up with this little plot twist."

"I'm not sure I see what the problem is." Tinkerbelle looked confused. "You guys aren't getting married; you're just pretending to dance together. It's acting, duh!"

"But… that's so weird," Peter complained.

"There's no need to get so defensive. If you two feel absolutely no romantic attraction towards each other, then this should be even easier because it's completely pretend." She blinked. "Right guys?"

Peter heaved a huge sigh. "Whatever. Let's do this thing. Where were we, Tink?"

"You two are dancing together," Tinkerbelle reminded.

Peter stepped forward and awkwardly placed his hands around Jane's waist. Jane, however, stood frozen, unsure what she was supposed to be doing.

"Put your hands on his shoulders," Tinkerbelle instructed.

Jane put her hands on his shoulders, which was difficult as he was so much taller than her.

"Now move around in really slow circles."

They shuffled around, and Jane almost immediately stepped on Peter's foot. And his other foot. And her own foot.

"Alright, maybe we should just stick to swaying for the time being," Peter suggested. "Princess Klutzy can't seem to figure out walking."

"Oh I'm so sorry I don't know how to dance," Jane said sarcastically. "I don't have any time to take dance classes."

"Peter took four years of cotillion," Tinkerbelle added. "Mom and Dad said that if he became a gentleman, they might be able to take him places with them. It didn't work I don't think, cause he still gets left home with me, but he does know ballroom dancing."

"Exactly!" Jane cried. "You can't expect me to be as good as Professional Dancer Boy over here! I'm new to this."

"Well it's not like we're doing the waltz, we're just walking together. You're just abnormally clumsy."

"Try and pretend like you love each other," Tinkerbelle put in. "You can get a little closer together; she's a princess, not a nun."

"This is just pathetic," Peter said. "Here's what's going to happen. I'm essentially going to drag you around the room, and you are going to hang on the best you can, alright? Believe me, after four years of forced dance classes, I know what I'm doing. Just… follow my lead, okay?"

"Fine," Jane replied, gripping his neck.

And then they were dancing. Peter wouldn't look at her, and his face was redder than his hair, but his hands were firm around her waist and he took each step with confidence. They glided across the linoleum floor of the first grade classroom looking almost as if even Jane knew what she was doing. Soon they were both in hysterics. Then Peter attempted to dip her, and she slipped on one of her shoes and brought them both down in one swift motion, and reducing the once graceful pair into a tangle of legs and arms and laughter.

"That was perfect!" Tinkerbelle exclaimed. "Except for the falling down part, but the rest was just great! Jane, I was hesitant about your make-believe abilities at first, but you really sealed the deal with this performance. Bravo!"

Jane blew her bangs out of her eyes. "You flatter me. It's just such an honor to work with such talented people. And your idiot brother too."

"Says the girl who tripped over her own foot and dragged me down with her," Peter said. He checked his cell phone. "Oh, it's nearly dinner, we should probably get going."

"Already?" Jane asked. The day had passed far quicker than she'd thought it would. "Well I guess we'd better get a move on."

Tinkerbelle looked crestfallen. "You're leaving? But… you'll come back tomorrow, right?"

"Definitely, Tink," Peter replied, tossing dress up clothes into the bin and wiping his makeup off with his sleeve. "We'll be back, right Jane?"

"Yeah, sure," Jane said.

"Good!" Tinkerbelle exclaimed tugging on one of her blonde pigtails. "Because tomorrow Princess Tinkerbelle, who is me, is stealing back the diamonds, remember? And I need you two to play evil trolls."

"How could I turn down an offer like that?" Jane laughed. "I'll see you tomorrow, I guess."

Tinkerbelle's face lit up like the sun. "Yay! Now we can all play together!"

.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

The students were due back to school the following Saturday. Jane's week with Peter hadn't been nearly as horrible as she'd feared; they mostly just watched TV and hung around with Tinkerbelle, but one more day and Jane would have killed someone. Probably herself.

The boys were not returned in the greatest condition:

Max and Nick seemed frazzled and on edge from a week spent peace-keeping between their parents.

Bobby was in a bad mood after being cooped up in a house with his entire judgmental extended family.

Simon, who'd been forced to spend his entire break doing homework and practicing clarinet into the late hours of the night, was exhausted.

Will was completely freaked out, as apparently his just-out-of-prison uncle had suffered a nervous break and almost burned their house down.

And Tony had suffered an accident while skiing, returning to school with a dislocated shoulder, a broken wrist, and eight stiches in his face.

"You lot look absolutely dreadful," Jane told them later as they sat around her basement. "I mean, I knew you said that your breaks weren't going to be a total breeze, but I never thought it would be this bad."

Simon groaned. "I need a vacation from that vacation. I think I'm going to spend tomorrow sleeping."

"I have to volunteer with the kindergarteners," Tony grumbled. "That's gonna be super fun with a cast and a sling."

"That sucks, man," Peter agreed, opening up a soda.

Jane patted Tony's non-dislocated arm. "I'll come along to help out, alright?"

"I'll come too," Peter added suddenly.

Jane stared at him. "You didn't want to come a second ago."

"Did too!" Peter argued. "I just forgot until you brought it up."

"Uh huh, you keep telling yourself that."

Peter responded by flipping her off.

"Jeez Tony what'd you do to yourself?" Tinkerbelle shrieked.

Tony sighed. "I fell."

"What did you fall off a cliff!?"

"Well, yeah actually," Tony explained. "I was skiing."

Tink frowned. "You must really suck at skiing."

"Very true."

"Could I decorate your cast?" Tinkerbelle asked eagerly. "I could make your cripple arm look really fabulous if I could just get my hands on some sharpies."

"C'mon Toodles," Peter coaxed. "You can't just walk around school with an un-fabulous cripple arm."

"Definitely not," Jane agreed. "That would just be a style mistake."

"Fine!" Tony gave in. "You can color on my cast! There are some markers over in the art cart."

Tinkerbelle threw her arms around his neck. "Thank you!"

Tony winced. "Careful of the dislocated shoulder."

Tinkerbelle skipped over to the rolling cart full of markers and Popsicle sticks and glue. She quickly assembled a team of her friends to assist her in her art project. Jane smiled. "You poor thing. Do you want me to get you something to eat while they decorate you?"

"A coke and a cookie," Tony sighed. "You can find them in the fridge in the kitchen."

"Like I don't know where they keep the food," Jane laughed.

By the time she got back, Tony was engulfed within a swarm of Sharpie-wielding five-year-olds while Peter sat perched atop a table watching in amusement. Jane waded her way through the sea of tiny bodies and handed Tony his snack. "Well they got right to work, didn't they?"

"Looks like it," he shrugged. "I guess broken bones are pretty exciting."

Jane squinted at a spot on his arm. "Some kid wrote 'fuck you' in huge block letters."

"Nah that was me," Peter said, grinning.

Jane rolled her eyes. "Hilarious."

"STOP!" Tinkerbelle shouted. Everybody froze. "He's perfect. Oh, will you look at that color scheme. Beautiful. Tony, what do you think?"

"It's great," Tony said with a smile. "I love it. Thanks guys."

"There you have it," Tink announced. "Another happy customer. Alright; you may resume your regular playtime activities. Good work people."

As the other kids dispersed to play and do puzzles and color, Tinkerbelle popped up next to them. "Hi guys."

"Hi," they chorused in near unison.

Tinkerbelle climbed up onto the table and into Peter's lap. "How's life for all of you?"

"I'd say it's going pretty good," Jane said. "Kind of bummed that we have to go back to class tomorrow, but it's only for two weeks, so it's manageable."

"Oh I know!" Tinkerbelle nodded emphatically. "And on the next break, we actually get to go home and see mommy and daddy, right Peter?"

"Yeah Tink," Peter answered. He pantomimed shooting himself in the head when his sister couldn't see.

Tinkerbelle turned to Tony. "How about you? Aside from the broken arms and legs and stuff."

"Ah, you know. Same old, same old."

"Don't be boring," Tinkerbelle scolded. "There must be something interesting going on in your life. Did you join any clubs? Are you getting a haircut? Have you learned how to cook? Did you get a boyfriend?"

Oh god.

"No, I'm not gay," Tony laughed, though he'd lost all color in his face.

Tinkerbelle smiled and raised an eyebrow. "Come on, buddy. Let's be honest."

Tony stood up abruptly. "I have to go down to the library. I just remembered."

"No need to get so touchy," Tinkerbelle said. "You just don't seem like the girlfriend type. I've known you for most of my five years, Tony, and I think I know what I'm talking about when I say that you like boys. Peter, Jane, back me up here. He's totally gay, right?"

"You don't know anything!" he snapped. "Just leave me alone."

Tony stormed out the room, slamming the door behind him. Tinkerbelle looked completely bewildered. "What's his problem?"

"Tink, I know you were just asking, but you can't just go around telling people they're gay. It's kind of a sensitive subject."

She was still confused. "But… no one cares on Torchwood."

"Seriously Peter; you let her watch Torchwood too? Are you-" Jane stopped. "Oh, never mind. That's an issue for another time. Anyways, yes, nobody cares on Torchwood; but this isn't a TV show. In real life, people care."

"Why?" she asked.

"Some people think it's wrong for a boy to love a boy or a girl to love a girl," Peter explained.

"Like who? How the heck can love be wrong?" Tinkerbelle asked, baffled. "It's like, the rightest thing you can do!"

Peter nodded. "I agree completely. But there are some people who insist that only a boy and a girl should love each other, and they say some pretty mean things to people who don't fit that mold. So sometimes it's hard for a person to tell the world that they're different, because they're scared of being judged."

"People like Tony," Tinkerbelle finished.

"Exactly." Peter looked at Jane. "We should probably go find him."

"Wait, but if you two leave," Tinkerbelle said, "who will watch us kids?"

"Uh, you will," Jane told her, following Peter out the door. "You're in charge."

"You mean…" Tinkerbelle's face lit up. "Like the queen?"

"Sure whatever. Don't set anything on fire."

They found Tony brooding in a corner of one of the hallways, scowling angrily at a wall.

"There you are," Jane said.

Tony glared at them. "Fuck off."

"C'mon, man." Peter slid down next to him. "Don't be like that. You know Tink didn't mean to upset you; she's barely six."

"I'm not upset," Tony argued. "I was just annoyed by all those snotty little kids. Why should I be upset? I'm not."

"Well… it's like the first time anybody's, you know, said that aloud," Jane said.

"Jesus I'm not gay!" Tony shot back. "Just cause I don't have a girlfriend doesn't mean you should jump to those conclusions!"

Peter shifted uncomfortably. "Dude, I mean, you let me use your computer when mine runs out of battery. You're not that careful with your browser history, if you know what I mean."

Tony pinched the bridge of his nose. "God damn it, Peter. Can't you mind your own business?"

"Nobody's judging you," Jane put in. "We just want you to be honest."

Tony wouldn't look at either of them. "Have you told anyone?"

"No," Peter answered. "Well, the Lost Boys all know, but they kind of figured it out themselves."

"When?"

"Um, beginning of the eighth grade," Peter estimated. "Or that's when we all discussed it, anyways."

"Three years ago?" Tony asked incredulously. "You had an actual, formal discussion and you never brought it up!?"

"I've only known since October," Jane added.

"It's seriously that obvious?"

"No," Jane said. "It's just when you spend a lot of time with a person, you get to know them pretty well. It's not like someone would know the second they met you."

"Though the gay porn on your computer was a pretty big tip off," Peter added. "Again, I insist you start clearing the history on your laptop. I know you're not that techie, but that's some pretty scarring stuff for your poor roommate to stumble upon."

"I don't understand how you could have 'stumbled upon' something like that," Jane speculated. "I mean, you must have been doing some hardcore snooping."

Tony groaned. "I haven't even told my parents."

"You don't have to tell them now, but they'll need to know eventually," Jane said. "It would be kind of unfair to just come home one day married to a dude with no explanation."

"Maybe I could email them," Tony suggested. "That way I don't actually have to have a conversation."

"Well, that's one option," Jane agreed. "We'll keep thinking."

Tony frowned. "If you two are both here, then who's watching the kids?"

"I may have left Tinkerbelle in charge," Jane answered. "I should… probably go back and handle that. Tony, you can have the rest of the day off after all of the trauma we just put you through."

"Thanks," Tony offered as Jane raced back down the hallway.

Jane burst through the doors to find Tinkerbelle standing on a table, wearing a crown and a red cape and holding a yard stick as though it were a scepter. "Alright people, I'm in charge. If I say we're all going to play house, then we're all going to play house. This is not a democracy; you will obey your queen!"

 

"So then, do you have a boyfriend?"

After dark, the Lost Boys (plus Jane and Will's girlfriend) had assembled in Jane's room and heard Peter, Jane, and Tony recount the day's events. Nobody was remotely surprised about the gay thing.

Tony turned bright red and inspected the floor. "Well, um, sort of."

"Oh my god!" Jane exclaimed, swatting his arm. "Why the hell didn't you mention that earlier? Who is it?"

"Okay, you guys really can't tell anybody," Tony said. "Or I probably won't have a boyfriend anymore."

"Yeah, sure. Of course."

"Um, it's this guy," Tony started. "He's in our grade, but he goes to Fredrick; you know, that public K-12 up near the Costco. And um, we were kind of both at this kid's party last year. So we kind of started talking, and we were both pretty drunk, and well, long story short, we made out in a bush for like twenty minutes and decided we should make that a regular thing. So, um, we're dating, I guess."

"So that's where you disappear to," Peter concluded. "I'd always wondered."

"You still haven't given us a name," Jane reminded. "Who is this kid?"

"It's, um, Liam Porterhall," Tony mumbled.

"Holy shit, seriously!?" Lily cut in excitedly. "Damn, Tony. You've got game!"

"Wait, who's Liam Porterhall?" Jane asked. "Is he hot?"

"Hell yeah, he's hot," Lily said. "Like the sun. I've met him in person a couple of time and I have definitely Facebook stalked him. He's captain of the lacrosse team and, let me tell you, that boy is a god." She paused and patted Will on the arm. "I'm speaking objectively, of course."

Will laughed and kissed her on the cheek. "If Liam's dating Tony, I don't think I have anything to worry about."

"Wait, Liam Porterhall is gay?" Max asked. "Do people know about this?"

"Noooo," Tony answered, shaking his head aggressively. "People definitely don't know. He's literally only out to me… and now you guys, I guess. Like, he is so deep in the proverbial closet that he's in Narnia. Only instead of saving the day and becoming the king like those kids in the book, Liam's hiding in another, Narnian closet. I mean, it may have taken a while for me to tell you guys I'm gay, but Liam literally doesn't plan to tell anybody, ever."

"How would that even work?" Simon asked. "Like, is he going to get married to some chick and pretend he's straight for his whole life?"

"Well, no," Tony admitted. "He told me he plans to graduate and move to a secluded cabin in the woods where no one will ever find him. I don't think he's serious, but he is trying to convince me to come with him."

"Aw! He wants to run away with you?" Jane squealed. "That's so romantic… in a weird kind of way."

Tony shrugged. "Well, I don't actually want to live out my life in the forest with my hermit boyfriend, but you know, we're working on it. His parents are the religious type, so it's not like they're going to be supportive, but maybe I'll convince him to come meet you guys."

"Oh my god, you totally have to!" Jane said. "I need to meet this kid."

"Alright, one last thing," Lily asked. "Are Liam's abs as perfect in person as they look on Facebook?"

"Ah yes," Tony said with a stupid grin. "Perhaps even more perfect."

.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

"Yes mum, I'm in the cab," Jane said into her phone. "We're almost back at school… I know… Yeah, Mum. Miss you too… When have I ever forgotten to call...? Alright, tell Danny I say hi… Love you too. Bye."

Jane slipped her phone in her jacket pocket and stared out the window. She was pretty sure they were close to the school, but it was hard to tell because of the snow. The weather had been miserable in London too; sleet and rain the entire time she was there. Christmas had still been fun though. It was nice to see her family after all those months and there had been presents and good food and other holiday festivities. She'd missed London; here there were too many trees and too few people and everyone spoke in a funny accent.

"Okay miss Darling, we're here," the cab driver announced. Looks like they were closer than Jane had thought.

"Alright, one second." Jane lifted her bags out of the trunk and handed the driver money through the window. "Thank you."

"No problem," the cabbie said as he drove back down the road.

Squinting through the snow, Jane dragged her luggage up the steps and attempted to nudge the door open with her foot. Luckily, someone on the other side opened it. Will poked his head through the doorway. "Hey guys, look who's back!"

"Hi," Jane said, looking around the dorm's lobby at her friends. "Have you lot been waiting for me?"

"Oh, don't flatter yourself," Max scoffed. "You have your room key and we couldn't get down to the basement."

"Can't you just drop through the ceiling like you always do?"

Bobby shook his head. "Nah they always do maintenance over the holidays, so there're people in the vents fixing that hole over the first floor. Didn't want to run into anyone."

"Makes sense." Jane did a quick count of the boys. "Where's Peter?"

Tony held up his phone. "He just texted me. Said he be here in like twenty minutes."

"Oh okay," Jane nodded. "Anyone do anything interesting for Christmas?"

"Uh, we went to Mexico," Nick offered. "That was pretty cool."

"Got some new shoes," Will said, holding up his foot.

Jane clapped her hands together. "Oh guys, I just remembered. So for Christmas, my mum got me one of those Keurig machines, and I brought it back with me. So now I can have coffee and stuff whenever I want it."

Tony sat up. "Wait, seriously? Could we use it?"

Jane pretended to consider this. "I suppose if you guys would carry my bags downstairs for me, I'll think about possibly sharing with you. If someone would go find cups, that is."

"I elect that Toodles gets the cups," Simon put in.

"What?" Tony protested. "But it's cold outside! And the dining hall's far away."

"All in favor?" Simon asked. Five hands shot up. "Well, majority rules. Better get a move on, bro."

"Fuck you guys," Tony grumbled, marching bitterly into the snow.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Aaaaaand a latte for Will," Jane announced.

"This thing is the shit," Will marveled, accepting his mug. "It is a magical machine. I have seen the face of Jesus and he made delicious, personalized cups of coffee."

Simon raised an eyebrow. "Getting a little ahead of yourself there."

"I don't think so," he sighed happily.

"Well, then I'm glad to have brought so much joy into your life," Jane laughed.

Suddenly, there was a loud banging on the door. Judging from the repetitive and rapid pace of the knocking, whoever was on the other side was impatient and angry. The moment Jane turned the knob, Peter burst through the door with snow in his hair and murder in his eyes. He slammed his bags down and dropped unceremoniously into a lawn chair, glaring at the ceiling as though it had wronged him in some way.

"... Well, hello then," Jane said. "You're certainly looking cheerful."

Peter shot her a scowl.

Jane glanced at his bags on the floor. "And you didn't have time to put your things in your own room either? C'mon mate, what's up with you?"

"Oh nothing," Peter said sarcastically. "Just that my parents fucking suck. They were gone for the first week and a half of vacation, showed up the day after Christmas, and stuck around for five days before shipping out again. They bought me a car for Christmas. A freakin car. I don't even know how to drive, not that we're allowed to keep cars on campus anyways. And do you know what they got Tink? The exact same dollhouse they got her last year. It's literally the exact same toy. Not to mention they showed up with the gifts on the 26th and didn't even wrap them. And in another shining moment of parenting, my mother told my little sister she was an "annoying, clingy brat" for following my parents around in an effort to spend time with them. And my dad proceeded to agree with my mother and then slam the door in Tink's face. And my sister is still convinced that my parents love us and that they're going to come around eventually. I swear to God, I nearly stabbed them both in their sleep."

"Wow," Bobby said after a moment. "That is seriously terrible."

"You bet it is," Peter snapped. "Someone change the subject. If I talk about this anymore, I'll punch something. Uh… Toodles, tell me about your break. Distract me. Use details."

Tony frowned. "Um, well I went back home to see my parents in Michigan. My aunt and uncle visited for a couple days. We went to the aquarium with my nine year old cousin, Trevor. Then the next week they went home and my older sisters came back from college. You've met them before; Hadley's a freshman at CU and a biology major, and Ella's a senior at Penn State and she's majoring in Linguistics. So they came home and that was fun. So for Christmas I got some new clothes and some money and an x-box that my folks wouldn't let me bring to school. I came out to my family, which went pretty well, though apparently Ella and Hadley had this running bet going about not if I was gay, but when I'd tell everyone. So that annoyed me a little, but Ella used some of her bet money to buy me a new phone, so it was okay. And then we went out to a nice dinner on New Year's, and I got a steak, which was pretty good. And then, uh, we saw a movie on Friday. It was okay. And… then on Saturday I came home. So yeah. That was pretty much it."

"Still angry." Peter grimaced. "Keep going."

"Well, that was pretty much my whole vacation," Tony said. "Uh well yesterday I took a cab back from the airport and dropped my stuff off here. Then I took the bus into town to get some food. I bought some soup. It was okay. And then I stopped by Liam's house and we fucked in his basement."

Even Peter looked up at Tony. After a long pause Jane finally broke in. "I'm, uh, glad we can all be so open about this."

"Yeah, now I can brag," Tony said with a grin. "Now you can all know that I am getting so much more action than all of you. With my frankly god-like boyfriend, nonetheless. So I think we all know who the real winner is here."

Jane blinked. "Okay then."

"Oh by the way," Will interrupted, turning to Simon. "Why were you up in the auditorium earlier?"

Simon looked at Will like he was crazy. "What are you talking about? I wasn't in the auditorium. I've never even been in the auditorium."

"Uh, yeah you were," Will said. "I said 'hey Slightly' and you looked over at me, and then you ran away. And what in god's name were you wearing?"

"I wasn't," Simon answered too quickly. "I wasn't wearing anything and I wasn't in the auditorium. Ever."

"Oh. My. God." Max's eyes lit up like he'd been handed a gift. "Are you in Les Mis?"

"Hahaha, what's Les Mis?" Simon laughed nervously. "Like, I don't even know what that means."

"You're in the play!" Max chorused. "He's in the play."

"The school play?" Bobby asked. "What show is it even?"

"Les Miserables," Max answered. "Kristy Halk's in it and she was telling me about it. But I didn't know that our boy Slightly was in it too! This is just gold!"

"What the hell is a Les Miserables?" Peter asked, having perked up a bit. "Is that Spanish or some shit?"

"It's French and it's a musical," Jane laughed. "A musical where they sing and dance and wear old timey costumes. I cannot wait to see you shine, Simon."

"You can't come!" Simon choked.

"Oh but we would never miss this, would we boys?" Peter grinned. "I can't believe you never told us. Do you have a solo, Slightly?"

"Well yes, but it's totally no big deal, at all, in anyways whatsoever. Almost everyone has one. I'm hardly even in the show. Mostly I did, like, lighting and stuff."

"Dude, you're in a musical?" Tony said. "That is so gay."

Simon glared. "Excuse me. I'm not the one screwing Liam Porterhall."

"See, there is no way you can twist that into a negative sentence," Tony replied, looking pleased with himself. "I am extremely happy to let you all know that I am regularly fucking a cute boy. And anyways, at least I'm not in the musical."

"Max, when is the musical?" Nick asked.

"It is this Friday, as a matter of fact!" Max said. "Tickets are ten bucks, but let's face it, this opportunity is priceless."

"You know what, I think I'll film it," Jane announced. "I think I want Simon's special moment to last us all a lifetime."

Simon groaned and covered his face with his hands. "Fuck. You. All."

 

"Is it starting?"

"I dunno."

"I think they'll turn the lights down."

"This is like the third play I've been to ever."

"Does anyone have a program?"

"Oh! They turned off the lights."

"Shut up!"

The curtains opened on a fancy looking guy and group of boys in matching rags and chains moping around the stage, apparently doing some kind of hard labor. Jane had seen the Les Mis movie, but she'd never seen the play, and she hadn't really been paying attention to the movie anyways. So basically, she had only a vague idea of what was happening. The boys on stage were singing some song about slavery and looking down when Simon and the guy in the fancy outfit stepped forward and started talking about bread. Jane remembered this part.

"Holy fuck," Max whispered. "Slightly's the main dude. John Velveeta or whatever."

"Jean Valjean," Jane corrected. "I can't believe it. 'Hardly even in it' my ass."

 

They found Simon after the show.

"Simon!" Jane scolded. "What the hell! You're the lead?"

"Uh sort of," Simon admitted.

"No! Not sort of! You were on stage practically the entire show!"

"It's not a big deal."

"Dude, it's kind of a big deal," Will said. "The program I was reading said we were one of the top ranked theatre programs in the state. And that this was not, in fact, a school play cause there were kids from other schools in it."

"Private schools always get ranked better," Simon argued. "And there were only like five kids from other schools."

"Still!" Jane said. "This is fucking impressive! I had no idea you could sing."

"Mrs. Grant made me do it," Simon protested (Mrs. G was the school's band teacher). "The band was going to do the background music and whatnot, but then Patrick Hart was getting all up in my face about how the orchestra wasn't important and nobody cares about it, and so I told him any dumbass could sing and, well, long story short Ms. G forced me to audition."

"But when were you practicing?" Bobby asked. "Aren't you like super busy?"

Simon nodded. "I haven't slept since November."

Jane put an arm around his shoulder. "Well, you were fantastic, mate. Absolutely brilliant."

"Thanks."

"I think I'll go get something from the concession stand," Jane said. "Anybody want anything?"

"I'll come," Peter answered.

Jane looked at him. "Why?"

Peter looked offended. "Uh, cause I want food. What are you the snack police now? It's a free country. So you can just shut it, Janie."

"Do. Not. Call me that," Jane warned, stomping away in the other direction. Peter, of course, followed right after her.

"So Jane," Peter asked when they were standing in line. "Anything interesting happening in your life?"

"Not really," Jane replied. "You?"

He shook his head. "Nah."

"How's your sister?"

"You know." Peter shrugged. "Same old, same old. She's wondering if you'd go and play with her again, and I told her you would, so just plan for that."

"Gee thanks for consulting me," Jane said sarcastically.

"Well you would have said yes anyways, so I didn't really see the point," Peter argued. "Tink's actually pretty cool with my parent's lousy present because now she has two matching dollhouses and now she can pretend that the family living inside the first house was cloned by aliens. So basically it's a really weird game to play with her."

"She's really quite strange, your sister," Jane commented. "Cute and nice, but strange."

Peter looked like he was going to protest, but instead just answered. "Yeah, she really is."

"Who are you going to the winter formal with?" Jane asked.

"Uh, Beth Mitchell," Peter answered.

Jane cocked her head. "The blonde girl who laughs a lot? Didn't you hate her, like, last month?"

"Still kind of do," Peter agreed. "But she's hot, and she's a good kisser, so it's kind of a tradeoff. What about you?"

"Oh didn't you hear? I'm going alone," Jane responded. "With friends, obviously."

"Did you not get asked?"

"Of course I got asked, dickhead. Three times. I just declined. Don't want to spend my night with some random guy when I could spend it with you guys, you know? They all looked pretty bummed though."

"Oh good," Peter said.

Jane frowned. "It's good that the boys who asked me looked bummed…?"

"What? No!" Peter said quickly. "It's just that I'm glad you… You know… Just… Friendship is important."

"You're strange too," Jane decided. "I can see where your sister gets it from."

"Shut up."

Finally, they were at the front of the line. Jane turned to Peter. "What do you want?"

"Oh, I don't have money."

"Well I'm not buying you anything," Jane said.

"Yeah I know."

Jane stared at him. "But then why did you- oh never mind. You're an idiot."

.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Jane was sleeping when someone started shaking her shoulder. "Jane! Janie! Wake up!"

She screamed and punched her attacker squarely in the jaw. They fell to the floor, cursing. "Shit! Ow! God damn it; why'd you do that!?"

Jane squinted through the dark and quickly identified the boy lying on her floor. "Peter!? What the fuck are you doing in my room? It's the middle of the bloody night!"

"A simple 'I'm sorry I tried to punch you out' would suffice." Peter rubbed his jaw. "And I'm here cause it's the twelfth of February. Duh. Why aren't you dressed?"

"What the hell do you mean 'it's the twelfth of February'!?" Jane hissed. "Why would I be dressed for the middle of the night?"

Peter looked confused. "We're stealing Hook's portrait, like we do every year."

"If you do recall, I was not here during previous years." Jane reminded him impatiently.

"Well yeah but have you just not been paying attention for the past week while we were planning this?"

Jane threw up her hands. "Planning this!? We didn't plan anything! Literally all we've been discussing is midterms and whether television shows are as good as movies. Nobody mentioned anything about stealing a portrait in the middle of the night! Have you been listening?"

Peter turned bright red. "Okay, maybe I wasn't totally listening, but I just assumed someone told you. We do pull this off every year, and all the other guys are ready."

Jane already figured Peter hadn't been paying attention during their nightly gatherings. Recently he'd been spending his time staring creepily at Jane for extended periods of time and then pretending he wasn't when she looked over. She didn't really mind it, but that was definitely an issue for another time. Jane sighed. "Alright, how about you just explain what's happening to me while I put on some real clothes. And if I catch you looking at me, I will have you neutered."

"So basically, this is what's happening," Peter told her, eyes closed, facing the wall. "When we were seventh graders, I got sent to Hook's office after the whole dumpster incident, long story, don't ask. But while I was in there I saw he had this hideous painting of himself on the wall. So me and the Lost Boys, then a new found group of allies, decided we would steal it. And we took it, in the middle of the night of February twelfth, the day hook was hired to this school, back in 1985. Hook went insane; there was this huge search to find his 'lost treasure' but by then it was already stowed away down here where he'd never find it. The next year he went out and got himself a new, equally horrible, painting, and we unanimously decided to make a tradition out of this portrait theft. Hook's been increasing security around his precious wall art every year, but the challenge is what makes it fun. Currently, we have four grotesque portraits, and tonight, we go for the fifth! Hey, are you dressed yet? We kind of need to go..."

"Yeah," Jane replied, zipping up her black sweatshirt. "Why don't we round up the rest of the Lost Boys and go through the plan?"

The plan seemed ill-formed, strange, and unlikely to succeed, but the boys spoke with such conviction that it was hard not to get excited. Which is how Jane found herself on the roof of the administration building wondering why she had agreed to do this in the first place.

"On my mark," Nick whispered. Nick was doing the tech work behind the operation. Over the years, Hook had invested in a multitude of high-tech pieces of security equipment, or what the schools budget allowed him to buy. Luckily Nick, head of the programming club, future computer science major, and self taught hacker, had broken into Hook's network. A few hours beforehand, Nick had disabled the motion sensors on the windows and doors, but he left the cameras on, as surely Hook would be checking them constantly on the night of the heist. Currently, Max was working on picking the locks on the window. How the twins learned to be criminal masterminds was beyond Jane, but it was helpful.

With a click, Max unlocked the lock and climbed silently back up to the roof. Nick nodded and pressed a button on his laptop. "Now!"

Peter and Will slid the window open and climbed through into the office. At this point, Jane and Tony climbed down from the roof stood below the window. In about thirty seconds the painting, which was indeed incredibly ugly, poked through the window. Jane and Tony pulled it out and Will and Peter hopped out, both landing lightly on their feet.

And then a light flicked on somewhere in the building.

This is where the plan fell apart, obviously Hook would notice that all of his security was disabled and go try to catch the thieves himself. And all the boys had planned for was "run". Jane, Tony, Peter, and Will broke into a mad dash for the dorm building where they had come from. Bobby and Simon, who were keeping watch, jumped out from behind a bush and joined them in running, and Max and Nick slid off the roof and did the same. The seven of them sprinted toward the dorm as silently as possible, only to come crashing into a shadowy figure in the dark.

"What in gods name are you doing at this hour of the night!" the person hissed. Jane blinked and saw that she had crashed into Mrs. Crock.

"Um sorry miss, we were only... going out for a walk," Jane sputtered.

Mrs. Crock didn't believe her for a moment. She glanced at the huge painting in Jane's arms. "Is that Hook's portrait?"

There was a long pause. "No?"

"It is isn't it?"

Another long silence.

"Huh, I'd always wondered who was taking that. Brilliant idea, by the way."

Nobody moved.

"Now I supposed to report any suspicious behavior, but then again, you kids were just going for a walk, isn't that right?" The seven of them nodded quickly. Mrs. Crock acknowledged them and continued on her way as if nothing had happened at all. "Well then, I'm glad we cleared that up. You might want to hurry up a little on your walk, or Hook might get suspicious, even though you are only out for an innocent midnight stroll. Okay, carry on then."

They watched her walk away, her heels click clacking as she did.

"Uh, we should keep running," Bobby suggested.

"Good plan," Will agreed ad they all picked up the pace.

Jane and the Lost Boys rounded the back of the dorm building and climbed through the window into Jane's basement. When the last boy came through Jane slammed the window shut and flopped onto her bed, catching her breath. When everyone had recovered, Will and Tony pulled out a cardboard box from the bottom of the stack of boxes and removed four other horrible portraits. They lined the pictures up next to each other and admired the hideousness.

"I guess it's official now, Janie," Peter said.

Jane cocked her head. "First off, don't call me that, and second, what's official."

"Well, you're a Lost Boy now," Peter explained. "You have proved yourself worthy."

The rest of the boys clapped and patted Jane on the back affectionately. "Wait, what do you mean I've 'proven myself worthy'."

"You've been hanging out with us for the whole year," Max suggested.

"We think you're cool," Bobby said.

"You're loyal," Nick offered.

"You can drink Peter under the table," Simon laughed.

"You helped us prank Hook," Will said.

"You're a good friend," Tony stated.

Peter grinned. "See Janie? We like you. We think you're ready to be a part of our group."

"You guys aren't serious are you?" Jane said. "I'm already a part of your group. It's nice that you lot accept me as one of your own and what not, but what exactly is going to change by me becoming a member of your little gang."

There was a pause. Peter ran his hand through his hair. "Uh, I guess the title of Lost Boy is more of an honorary thing than it is practical, but it's still pretty cool, right? I mean, you're the first Lost Girl in the history of ever."

Jane laughed. "Fine it's cool. I'm glad you guys have come to terms with the fact that I am your leader. You know what? Let's celebrate. Bring on the festivities."

The boys cheered and Peter stood looking confused. "Wait 'leader'? What do you mean leader?"

"We've decided this celebration was big enough," the boys handed her a tiny cup, "to break out the sake."

"Oh my god, seriously?" Jane laughed. "This is the special occasion you were all waiting for to break out the Japanese alcohol?"

"Apparently!" Tony announced.

 

The adrenalin and the exercise of the night's activities, coupled with exotic alcohol, pretty much put everyone to sleep after about twenty minutes. The boys were too tired to climb back to their rooms through the ceiling, so Jane agreed to let them camp out on her floor, just this once. Jane distributed the blankets they kept in one of the boxes and the boys fell asleep almost immediately. Peter flopped down next to Jane and passed out, his head resting on her shoulder. She considered shoving him off, but she was so tired and in such a good mood surrounded by all of her best friends. She looked around and saw the sleeping faces of people who liked her for exactly what she was. So instead of moving Peter's head off of her chest, Jane fell asleep.

.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

"We're going to a lacrosse game," Tony announced one March night in Jane's basement.

Peter looked confused. "Why the hell do you want to go to a lacrosse game? We hate the lacrosse team. They're all 'lax this' and lax that', like, you really couldn't waste your time with one extra syllable? And they totally suck anyways, do you really want to go see a bunch of jerks getting their asses kicked."

Tony rolled his eyes. "I don't want to go to see our lacrosse game, idiot. We're gonna go see the Fredrick High lacrosse team. They don't suck. C'mon; it'll be fun."

"Isn't Liam on that team?" Jane asked.

"Ah yes," Tony sighed contentedly. "You've uncovered my real motive. I honestly couldn't give a shit about lacrosse, but I thought this would be a good time to show off my hot boyfriend."

"Do we get to meet him?" Jane asked excitedly. "I mean we've been hearing about this kid for like four months and I still haven't seen him in person."

"Uh, maybe," Tony said doubtfully. "See, I haven't actually, you know, told Liam that I told you guys. So he might, well… freak the fuck out if I told him he isn't exactly as closeted as he thinks he is. So then I guess my answer is maybe you could meet Liam, but probably not."

"You could still admire him from afar," Lily suggested from her place in Will's arms. "He is, like, the second hottest guy I've ever met."

"Second to whom?" Jane asked.

She reached up and patted her boyfriend on the head. "Will, of course. He's perfect and, unlike Liam Porterhall, straight. And he's all mine."

Then they started making out so passionately that everyone felt uncomfortable.

"So, when is this game?" Max asked.

"Tomorrow," Tony answered. "We're only going for the second half, which starts at five thirty, but plan to leave at five fifteen-ish because the bus ride is thirteen and a half minutes on average."

"Thirteen and a half?" Jane asked. "That's a little specific."

"I've been taking the bus to Fredrick two to five times a week for the past ten months," Tony replied. "And if you only got to see your hot boyfriend two to five times a week, believe me, you'd be counting the minutes too."

"Well it sounds like a plan then," Peter said. "Meet tomorrow at the bus stop at five fifteen."

..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

"Huh, I guess you were right," Nick said, checking his watch. "The bus ride was thirteen minutes and twenty six seconds."

"I know my shit," Tony said with a nod.

Peter scanned the bleachers. "There are a bunch of open seats up there on the left. How many of us are there? One, two… uh, eight! Yeah I think we'd fit."

A flight of stairs, several angry fans, a few bruised shins, and one spilled coke later, the entire crew was seated on the bleachers. As a result of arriving at half time, they weren't the best seats, but because the team was playing against a really terrible team, not a lot of people bothered showing up, so they weren't the worst seats either.

Tony nudged Jane and pointed at the field. "That one over there is Liam."

Jane squinted to see the boy Tony was pointing at. The boy she assumed to be Liam Porterhall stood talking with some teammates, all of them wearing the blue and gold lacrosse uniforms. He was tall and athletic with a friendly smile and tousled hair somewhere between brown and blonde. She couldn't see his face very well, but Jane was sure it was as fantastic as the rest of him. "Oh god you weren't exaggerating."

"No I was not," Tony sighed dreamily.

Lily looked over too. "See, he really is quite attractive."

"I'd get with that in a second," Jane agreed. "Tony you lucky, lucky boy."

"Wait you'd get with that?" Peter cut in. "I mean he looks fine sure, but not, like, that great. And also he's gay so you couldn't really ever date him. Not ever in real life."

"No really?" Jane with biting sarcasm. "I couldn't date Tony's boyfriend because he is gay? Gee, I never would have ever figured that one out on my own, thanks for enlightening me."

"Just pointing it out," Peter grumbled, suddenly in a bad mood.

Jane rolled her eyes and turned back to Tony. "Really, mate, that's incredible for you."

"But seriously," Lily said. "You tapped that?"

"I did tap that," Tony said fondly. "I tapped that over there in the equipment shed. And behind that pine tree. And next to the goal over there. And even under these very bleachers."

Jane looked down at her seat, a little grossed out. "You're verging on nymphomania a little bit."

"I mean it's not as bad as it sounds," Tony argued. "I mean mostly we just hang out and watch movies and stuff. But, like, I'm a horny seventeen year old and he's horny seventeen year old, no one ever doesn't want to have sex. It's, like, the perfect relationship."

"You're gross," Jane said.

"At least he's being gross with the captain of the lacrosse team," Lily pointed out.

"Exactly," Tony said. "But, like, once you get to know him, you figure out he's the biggest nerd on the planet."

"What do you mean?" Jane asked.

"Well, he's wildly awkward," Tony said. "People just think he's being aloof and cool, but really he just gets so nervous in social situations that he can't think of anything to say. And when he does talk, he has this huge nerdy vocabulary. Like, he'll tell me saying he want to be licentious with me. And he won't just say 'love you too' he has to go on about his sempiternal redamancy. Like, really. Those were actual words that came out of his dorky mouth. And then when we hang out, I'll, like, mention hearing about a TV show or something and he'll be like 'oh yeah, I love that show, I marathoned every episode in all seven seasons on Netflix last month.' And I'll ask 'whoa how long did that take,' and he'll be like 'two weeks.' So yeah, Liam appears to be a cool, popular lacrosse star, but really I'm dating an awkward dictionary nerd who watches way too much TV."

"That's a little cute though," Jane said.

"I know I love it," Tony agreed. "I don't think I could even find another guy who'd text me at two in the morning about the plot of some book he's reading, or tell me I'm quiescent, or think that I'm cooler than him. I mean, it'd be great if he could do all that in public, but Liam's still come a long way from back when he insisted we were dating 'in a straight way'. So, you know, baby steps."

"That was the cutest thing I've ever heard. I think my heart just melted," Jane said.

"You were dating in a straight way?" Lily asked.

"We went on 'friend dates', we had 'dude sex', every time he kissed me, he was all 'but no homo though right' it was very awkward. I mean, we were full homo."

"That's not so bad," Lily said.

Tony looked her in the eye. "Believe me, if you'd ever received a 'bro job', you'd understand how weird it was."

Peter tapped her on the shoulder. "Hey, Jane. Come get food with me."

"But the concession stand is so far away…"

"I heard they have tacos."

Jane considered. "I do love tacos. Alright, I'm coming."

Jane and Peter slid out of the their place on the bleachers, trying their best not to step on peoples toes or fall on top of anyone. The concession stand did, in fact, include tacos in its menu, which Jane ordered three of. Peter paid, and Jane let him, mostly because he whipped out a wallet filled with fifties and Jane figured he could afford to buy her some cheap food. They sat down on the grass to eat their food, not wanting to try and climb back through the bleachers with a heaping plate of tacos.

"There's only fifteen minutes left in the game," Peter said, checking his phone.

"I don't think it's worth it to try to get back to our seats," Jane said. "I don't really have any desire to climb those god forsaken stairs again."

"Jeez you really hate stairs," Peter laughed.

"I climb two flights of stairs just to get in and out of my bedroom, at least three or four times a day," Jane responded. "I am really fed up with stairs."

"Fine," Peter said. "Want to walk down to the lake then?"

"But we'll miss the rest of the game," Jane protested.

Peter glanced at the score board. "We're winning by six points. I don't think the score will take any dramatic turns. Come on."

"Okay," Jane said, following after him down the hill. Fredrick High School was built right next to a public park and a huge lake, not like the duck pond they had at Neverland, but an honest-to-goodness lake. They'd all heard stories about all the crazy stuff the public school kids got into, a lot of which revolved around this lake, like how they hazed freshman by throwing them in or that time some kid brought a boat and canoed during his lunch period. There were a lot more kids at Fredrick than at Neverland Academy, mostly because Fredrick was free. This meant the school was a lot more decrepit, and there weren't any dorms or anything, but they did have a nice lake.

Jane and Peter walked down to the little dock that stretched out over the water and sat down.

"It's pretty," Jane commented.

Peter mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like "so are you"

Jane whirled on him. "What the fuck? Did you just say-"

"What no! All I said was so is the… um, view! Not anything else, that's for sure, it's just the view it's really… uh…" Peter looked around, panicked, and ran fifteen feet off the dock and into the lake.

"Jesus Christ, Peter!" Jane exclaimed. "What's wrong with you!?"

"I was hot," he said, despite the fact that it was maybe forty five degrees outside. "You should come in. The water's fine."

"Hell no!" Jane said. "Why in the world would I want to go for a swim, fully clothed, in a public lake, in the middle of March? You're going to get pneumonia!"

Peter looked down. "Yeah. I was totally lying when I said the water was fine. It's fucking freezing. Please help me out."

"You are honestly the dumbest bastard I know," Jane said, offering a hand to him onto the dock.

Peter climbed onto the dock, soaking wet and shivering. "Hey, at least I'm not any dumb bastard, I'm the dumbest!"

Jane didn't laugh.

 

Peter shivered as they climbed back up the hill towards the field. "I'm freezing to death."

"Of course you are," Jane replied. "It's March, and you jumped in the fucking lake, you twat."

"The fact that it was a dumb idea doesn't make me any less cold," Peter grumbled.

"Walk faster," Jane told him. "The game ended fifteen minutes ago, and they're probably wondering where we are."

"I can't go faster," Peter whined. "I'm made of ice."

Jane rolled her eyes. "Suck it up."

By the time they reached the field, it was pretty much empty; Jane didn't recognize a single person still left in the bleachers. "They must've all wandered off somewhere. You don't think they'd leave without us, do you?"

Peter shrugged. "Probably not. I'm sure they're around here somewhere. Do you want to walk around and try to find everyone?"

"Yeah." Jane pulled her phone out her bag. "I'm gonna text Will. He's usually pretty good at responding promptly."

"Oh crap," Peter said with a look of horror, reaching into pocket of his soaking wet jeans and pulling out his own phone. He pressed the power button a couple of times, but the screen stayed blank. "It's busted."

Jane nodded. "Yeah, that's what happens when you go swimming with electronics."

"Damn it!" Peter cursed. "I need a working cell phone. This is a disaster."

"Well can't you just buy a new one?" Jane asked as they started walking the perimeter of the school.

Peter looked at her like she was crazy. "That'd cost me like three hundred dollars! Where am I going to find three hundred bucks? I don't have that kind of cash!"

"Um, aren't you, y'know, rich?" Jane pointed out. "Don't you have three hundred dollars?"

"Yeah but not on me," Peter complained

"What, were you planning on swinging by the apple store on your way back to school?" Jane asked. "You can last a day without your smartphone."

Peter grimaced. "I don't want to."

"Stop being a little bitch!" Jane exclaimed.

 

After ten minutes, Will finally responded to Jane's texts. Apparently he and Lily and the boys had actually left without them. As Jane contemplated the fastest possible route to the bus stop, Peter tapped her on the shoulder. "Do you think they have towels in there?"

Jane looked over to what Peter was pointing at, which the door to the school locker room. "Probably, but I don't think we're allowed in there."

"Oh yeah? Well I'm too wet and cold to care," Peter argued, walking towards the building. "Besides, who's even gonna be in there? We saw all the lacrosse guys leaving, so who'd be hanging around in a locker room when they could be somewhere else."

"It might be locked," Jane commented.

Peter pulled the handle and the door swung open. He raised an eyebrow smugly.

"Make it quick," Jane said, following after him. "I'm not in the mood to be arrested for breaking and entering today."

He stuck his tongue out at her.

Sure enough, the room was empty. Jane tagged behind Peter in his search between locker blocks and sinks and showers looking for clean towels. "They've got to have towels somewhere around here right? Of course they do; it's a locker room. Ah ha! There we go."

Peter pointed towards a closet labeled linens. "'Linens?' That's so pretentious. It's not like there's anything else in here besides towels." He grabbed the handle and flung open the door.

Apparently, there was something else in that closet besides towels, or rather someone else. That someone was Tony, pressed up against a rack of towels by another someone, who was kissing him with a fervency that rivaled even Will and Lily. The boy, who must have been Liam, immediately jerked his face away and stared in horror at Peter and Jane. Jane was momentarily amused at the irony that they'd found a secret gay couple in an actual closet.

"Holy shit!" said presumably Liam with a look of terror.

"Oh, uh, hello," Peter started. "I just wanted to gra-"

Liam sprung forward and punched Peter in the throat. He was frantically studying Jane as if considering the best way to take her out when Tony jumped in front of him. "Whoa there! Calm down, they're with me; we're all cool here."

Liam glanced at Jane and then back at Tony, still looking panicked. "What do you mean they're 'with you'?"

"Liam, these are my friends, and they already know we're, you know, doing stuff together" Tony replied, putting himself between Liam and Jane, as if he was trying to make sure no one else was going to get taken out. "I told them a couple months ago."

"Sorry we have to meet like this! You should know we completely support you both," Jane put in. "Right Peter?"

Peter, who was curled up on the ground, made a retching noise and clutched his throat.

"But… who are they?" Liam asked Tony. "And why did you tell them?"

"Peter and Jane are good friends of mine. We have definitely talked about them before. I informed them, and a couple of my other close friends, about me and you because I trust them and I wanted them to know what was going on in my life."

"I told you not to tell anybody" Liam said looking angry and a little hurt. "You said you-"

"It's my life too, you know," Tony interrupted. "It's really hard to keep secrets all the time, you know that. It's not like they're gonna put it in the paper or call your parents or anything, so far, nobody's been anything but supportive. So you are going to apologize for almost attacking Jane and act normal."

"I just... I don't know."

Tony put a hand on Liam shoulder. "C'mon, telling a few people wouldn't so bad, right?"

Liam shook his head slightly, though he looked distressed.

"Hey," Tony said. "It's going to be fine, okay?"

Liam turned towards Jane looking a little guilty. "Sorry about that whole thing where I considered killing you, it's not personal or anything."

Jane smiled. "It's completely fine"

"Is your friend, you know, alive?" he said looking down towards Peter

Tony looked down and shrugged "Peter's an asshole. He'll be fine, right Peter?"

"Just… wanted… towel," Peter choked.

 

Liam accompanied Peter, Jane, and Tony on their way to the bus stop. It was kind of a far walk, but it was on the way to Liam's house, so he agreed to come along. Well, Tony sort of forced him to go, but that didn't diminish the fact that this was a good opportunity to get to know the elusive boyfriend they'd been hearing about for ages.

Jane walked next to Liam. "It's really good to officially meet you. We've heard loads about you."

"It's, um, good to meet you too, I guess." Liam looked like he wanted to die.

Tony nudged him forward. "Try to be social, okay? Just because everyone's not a nice person doesn't mean there aren't nice people out there. And Jane here is one of those nice people, again, Peter's pretty much a huge dickbag so you can ignore him. C'mon Liam, get to know Jane a little."

"He brags about you all the time," Jane coaxed, once Tony was out of earshot. "He goes on and on. Never shuts up about you, really, it's sort of annoying."

"Really?"

"Oh yeah," Jane said. "I heard you have fabulous abs"

Liam turned bright red.

"Honestly though, Tony cannot stop talking about you. He must really like you, you know."

Liam gave a sheepish smile. "Really? Thats... good. yes that's just so" he looked around as if he was searching for the proper word "...extra good

Tony wasn't exagerrating, he really was awkward. "Yes, that is good" Jane said nodding reassuringly.

"Does he say anything interesting about me?" he asked shyly.

"Hmm. Well, mostly he just tells us that you're really hot, but some memorable things Tony has told us about you include that you're a big dork, and that you're a little bit socially awkward, and that you wanted to run away with him and be hermits in the woods, which I thought was adorable, by the way." She smiled up at him. "Hey! Now that you're telling people, maybe you two won't have to be hermits in the woods! Maybe you could just get an apartment or something."

He laughed uncomfortably. "Well, if I told my parents I was having premarital sex with a guy, they would probably have me exorcised."

"Oh," Jane said. "You still won't have to be a hermit though, because Peter and I will surely come over and bother you two. All the time probably."

"Thanks," he said with a smile.

The bus pulled up almost the moment they reached the bus stop. Jane, Peter, and Tony scrambled to find bus money while Liam stalled the driver. Eventually, the money was located and it came time to board the bus. Liam reached out for a hand shake and Jane went in for a hug. "Text me okay? You seem really cool; I think you make a pretty good match for our Tony. Of course, I'm sure it goes without saying that if you break his heart, I will break you face."

Liam looked frightened.

"Oh don't listen to her, she's not going to break your face," Peter said dismissively. "We'll all break your face. Me, Jane, the five other Lost Boys; we'll break into your house at night and take turns killing you."

"Aw, it's nice to be loved," Tony said. "But like, friendship aside, we really do have to go…"

"Okay, see you later. Bye Peter. Bye Jane. Bye Tony." Liam kissed Tony very, very quickly on the cheek, and walked away, bright red and without a word.

"Oh my god, he's so embarrassed," Jane said to Tony when they were seated on the bus. "I'm dying; he's just the cutest."

"I thought so," Tony said fondly. "That's why I like him so much."

Peter shuddered.

"Are you still cold?" Jane asked.

"No, I was just thinking about how glad I am that Tony and Liam were fully clothed when we walked in," Peter said looking horrified.

"I'm not even kidding we would be dumping your bodies in the lake right now." Tony said, looking out the window.

.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

"Are any of you going to that carnival thing?" Bobby asked.

"The what?" Peter replied. "There's a carnival?"

Bobby frowned. "Um, yeah. There are posters, like, all over the hallways. And it was mentioned in the announcements about ten times. Have you guys seriously not heard about any of this before now?"

He was regarded with blank stares from around the circle.

Bobby sighed. "I swear to god; you guys must walk around the school with your heads down. Student council planned a carnival to raise money for prom."

"Wait, you actually have a prom here?" Jane asked.

"Do you not have prom in England?" Tony asked.

Jane shrugged. "Well we had formal dances or whatever, but we never had a prom. I mean, some schools where I'm from held an official "prom", apparently it's becoming more popular, but my school never did anything like that. Do, like, all schools have prom here?"

"Pretty much all of them," Nick said. "It's a huge deal for a lot of people."

"Huh. When is it?"

"The carnival is on Friday and Prom is a month from now, May 5th," Bobby answered. "I know this because I actually pay attention to the world around me, unlike you numb skulls, apparently."

"Is there a theme?" Max asked.

"A Night in the Stars," Bobby said with a shrug. "Whatever that's supposed to mean."

"Oh my god, the dance is themed?" Jane asked incredulously. "That is so cliché."

Peter nodded. "I think it's supposed to be. Are we obligated to go? Cause I have not been to a school sponsored event thus far, and I don't plan to start now."

"Technically no," Simon said. "But I heard Ms. Crock drops you a letter grade if she doesn't see you there. She's head of the prom committee."

Peter scoffed. "Yeah right; she can't actually drop us a letter grade. Where'd you here that from?"

"Ms. Crock," Simon replied, dead serious. "She told us in class. And she can do whatever she wants. Hook's not going to do anything about it, and I'd like to see a parent try and tell her how to do her job. That woman is scary."

"Well, I guess I'm going to prom, then," Peter sighed. "Is the carnival mandatory too?"

"Don't think so," Simon said.

"Then that, I am skipping," Peter decided.

"Aren't you going to take your sister?" Jane pointed out.

"Fuck it," Peter said, throwing up his hands. "Why don't you just call me Mr. School Spirit from now on? Hooray for Neverland Academy. Green and gold forever."

Jane rolled her eyes. "Because god forbid anyone mistakes you for someone who cares about something other than hanging around in the basement and your dumb football team."

"Wrong; I care about the soccer team," Peter corrected. "The football team can suck a dick."

"That's homophobic," Tony said without looking up from his math homework. "I'm offended."

"Oh shut it, loser."

 

The carnival was just as lame as Peter had said it would be. It reminded Jane of a birthday party she had attended in second grade. There was a dunk tank. There was face painting. There was a clown. If the school carnival had a hyperactive poodle running around and tripping people, it would have been exactly like Stacy Carmichael's seventh birthday. Jane was examining the menu of snow cone flavors when a pair of tiny hands grabbed her arm. "Hi Jane!"

"Oh, hey Tinkerbelle."

"Peter said I could get a snow cone, only then I found you here too." Tinkerbelle bounced on the balls of her feet in excitement, her fairy wings and blonde pigtails bobbing up and down in time. "I haven't seen you in forever."

"I saw you like two weeks ago," Jane laughed.

She nodded. "Exactly. Forever."

Peter finally caught up with his sister. She squealed and hugged his legs, nearly knocking him over. "Hey Janie."

"Don't fucking call me that," Jane warned.

"Language," Tinkerbelle reminded.

"Sorry," Jane grumbled. "Now, if your idiot brother could stop calling me Janie, we'd be golden."

"Whatever you say… Janie."

"I am so fed up with this Janie nonsense!" Jane exploded, standing up. "I'm nearly seventeen years old, as are you, by the way, and you need to stop it with this cutesy nickname business, or I swear to god I will slit your throat in your sleep!"

"But you are cute," Peter laughed.

"And don't you dare tell me I'm cute when I'm angry; it's demeaning!"

"No not when you're angry," Peter said, the smile immediately melting off his face. "Right now, I'm a little bit afraid. But like the rest of the time."

Jane cleared her throat and looked away.

"Wow it really is a scorcher today," Peter said uncomfortably.

"It just got really awkward," Tinkerbelle whispered. "Can I still have a snow cone?"

"Sure thing Tink, what flavor?"

She considered for a moment. "Red; like your faces."

Peter glared at her.

"Hey, that's what I'm getting too," Jane said with a smile. "Red's my favorite flavor."

"Red isn't a flavor," Peter said.

Jane stared at him. "Of course it is; don't be stupid."

Peter rolled his eyes. "Three red snow cones."

"See; you're getting red too, hypocrite."

"Just thank me for paying like a normal person," Peter grumbled.

"You insulted my choice of flavor; you paying was a given."

Peter handed her a snow cone. "Well you're welcome, anyways."

Tinkerbelle tapped Peter on the shoulder. "Could I do that game where I win a fish?"

"You aren't allowed to keep pets in your dorm," Peter said. "So no fish."

"But daddy said he pays that he pays my teachers bills and so I can do what I want," Tinkerbelle said matter of factly. "He said that lots of times when we saw him at Christmas."

"Remember what I told you about mom and dad?" Peter reminded her.

Tinkerbelle sighed. "Don't listen to them, because they are overpaid, undereducated stupid heads, and having money is not a free pass in life."

"That's right."

"I still want a fish though," Tinkerbelle complained. "I would name him Sebastian, and he'd be a cool fish."

"You could keep your fish in my room," Jane suggested. "Keeping me in the basement is already so against regulation that they don't actually inspect me. Ever. Some guy came in to fix my heater back in January, but that's about it."

Tinkerbelle looked pleadingly at Peter.

"Fine," he said. "But only if you win, and I'm only giving you one ticket to try."

"Thank you!" Tinkerbelle exclaimed.

The game was set up so there were twelve empty fish bowls set up in a three by four rectangle, each bowl about five inches apart. The fish owning hopeful had to sink three of the five ping pong balls in the bowls to win a fish. The challenge, was that the thrower could only toss the balls from behind the yellow line, which was eight feet away from the first row. Tinkerbelle received her ping pong balls and excitedly threw her first ball.

Of course, it sailed over the twelve bowls and landed in the grass.

The second ball flew to the left and bounced off the attendant's forehead.

"Oh no!" Tinkerbelle cried in distress. "Sebastian will never be mine."

"You still have three shots left," Peter offered. "If you make all of them, you win."

"Get real, Peter. With my aim, there's no way I could get three in a row." Tinkerbelle paused. "Wait, do I personally have to throw the balls, or could I pick someone to do it for me?"

 

Later that night, Peter was setting a small fishbowl on Jane's desk. "I can't believe you made all of those. Even the bonus shot they gave you for getting three in a row."

"What can I say, I'm the champion of ping pong fishbowl throwing," Jane said with a shrug, sitting down on her bed.

"Clearly." Peter sighed, sitting next to her. "Tink's never gonna stop pestering me about that damn fish."

"You mean Sebastian," Jane corrected. She glanced around. "Hey, where is everybody? I just saw them at that dumb carnival."

"Nibs is with Lily, Toodles is with Liam, Slightly is sick, and Cubby and the Twins went to go see some low budget slasher film," Peter said.

"So just you and me then?"

Peter grinned. "Just you and me, Janie."

Her eyes narrowed. "Don't. Call. Me. Janie."

"It's been like eight months," Peter said. "If I was going to stop, I would have done it already, Ja-"

"Say it," Jane hissed, her face murderous. "Try me. I dare you."

He scoffed. "What are you going to do to me?"

Jane scowled and slapped him on the arm with all the strength she had.

"Ow!" Peter yelped. "That hurt! I think you left a handprint."

She nodded and slapped him again.

"What the hell? Stop it!" he was laughing a little now, which only made Jane want to hit him harder. He grabbed her wrists mid swing and pulled her against him.

"You really are an asshole, but you know that don't you" Jane hissed.

Their faces were only a couple inches apart, hopefully that meant Peter was getting a really good look at how pissed she was. She could actually feel his heart beat against her hand; it was pounding pretty fast. Maybe Jane really was scaring him

"Oh yeah? Well you're…" he trailed off, his face bright red. Jane felt his heart beat pick up and suddenly his lips were on hers.

Jane pulled back a little at first but found that… it wasn't entirely awful. In fact, it was almost nice, she may have even enjoyed it. His hands loosened on her wrists and he placed his hands on the back of her neck and pulled her in closer. She wrapped her arms around his waist and kissed him and let him kiss her and it didn't feel nearly as wrong as she had imagined it would. And as quickly as it had started, they both drew away, panting

"What the hell, Peter," Jane breathed.

"I don't know," he looked shocked and uncomfortable. "I just…"

Jane took a step forward. "You should really get going."

"I should," he said, taking off his shirt.

"Oh no, don't do that," she mumbled halfheartedly.

"I'm going to leave," he whispered.

Jane shook her head. "No you're not."

..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

"Well that happened," Peter said from where he was sitting, way on the other side of the room.

Jane, still in her bed, shook her head. "No it didn't."

Peter glanced at her. "What?"

"Nothing happened here. Nothing at all." Jane hopped out of the bed and checked the clock on her nightstand. "It's only ten; Tony should still be out with Liam. You are going to go back upstairs and go to sleep."

"Right," Peter agreed, catching on. "Because this didn't happen."

"Exactly. You came down here and hour ago, dropped off your sister's fish, and went back up to your room. That's all."

"Of course," Peter said.

"Alright then, you'd better be on your way. After all, you were never here."

Peter stood up and look at her uncomfortably. "Could you… um, could you toss me the rest of my clothes? I think you still have my shirt and my shoes."

"Now why would I have your clothing? You were only here for a moment, an hour ago, and would have had no reason to undress." Jane pulled out a blue shirt and a pair of sneakers from under her bed and threw them to Peter. "Don't be ridiculous."

She took one final look at his perfect, perfect abs as he pulled on his shirt and guided him towards the grate in the ceiling. "Okay, time to get moving."

Peter pulled himself up and disappeared through the whole in the ceiling, but not two seconds later, his head poked back out. "So I assume we aren't telling people that we… you know."

"That we what?" Jane asked. "We did not do anything together. There is nothing to tell anyone. Ever."

"Gotcha," Peter said, he grinned. "I had a good time though."

"You had a good time when? At the fair? I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh, right. Bye." Peter vanished back into the darkness, this time not reappearing.

 

The next morning, Jane met her friends at their usual table at breakfast. It was Saturday, waffle day, so everyone was in a good mood. She sat down in her usual spot between Peter and Tony. "Morning, everyone."

Peter stared at her wide eyed and scooted his chair away. "Whoa, why are you sitting so close to me? What are you doing?"

"This is where I always sit…" Jane said, narrowing her eyes.

"She does always sit there," Tony agreed. "And not usually any closer or farther away then she is right now. Why are you acting weird, Peter?"

Peter flinched. "Acting weird? I'm not acting weird. I don't know what you're talking about."

Jane rolled her eyes. "So which of you went to that movie last night?"

"Oh it was me, Nick, and Bobby," Max said. "The movie was terrible, but what can you really expect from a movie called Attack of the Slug Men. Really it all just went downhill when the scientists decided to experiment on the slug people by injecting them with nuclear waste."

"They're making a sequel too," Bobby added. "Promises to be as gory and stupid as the first one."

"I'm not acting weird!" Peter repeated loudly, sweating a little. "I already told you I'm fine. Could we please just stop talking about it? Everything is perfectly normal."

"Bro, we're not talking about you," Simon said. "What's gotten into you?"

"Nothing!" Peter exclaimed. "What's gotten into you?"

"I literally have no idea what you're talking about," Simon replied.

"Oh you don't?" Peter shot back. "What are you implying? Huh?"

"Dude, calm down," Jane said. "Maybe you should go take a walk or something."

Peter laughed nervously, sounding more and more psychopathic by the minute. "Why are you telling me what to do, Jane? You sound like my wife. Ha how crazy is that thought, am I right guys?"

Jane stood up and grabbed his arm. "You know what? Let's both go outside to get some air."

Jane dragged his by the arm through the dining hall and out the door. She slammed the door behind her and whirled on Peter. "What the fuck is wrong with you, Peter?"

"They're on to us," Peter said, his eyes flitting around like he was expecting to be ambushed. "Did you see the way they were looking at me? Oh god, everyone knows. All of them."

"They will soon if you can't chill out!" Jane snapped. "Pull yourself together, damn it!"

Peter pulled at his collar. "Is it hot in here? I feel hot."

"Get a grip, Peter! Nothing happened between us, and supposing something had happened, it didn't mean anything!"

"Got it. Okay." He nodded frantically. "Didn't mean anything. Right."

"If we go back inside, can you keep it together?" Jane asked.

"Sure." He started walking back towards the door.

"Peter."

He stopped. "What?"

"Breathe."

He inhaled. "Right."

.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

They were sitting around the lantern in the basement when Nick asked the question. "So who's everyone taking to prom?"

"I for one, am taking Sarah McMillan," Bobby said happily.

Jane tilted her head. "Is that the girl in your English class you've been trying to work up the nerve to talk to since, about, January?"

"Yeah, she's the one with the freckles and the ridiculously loud laugh, right?" Peter added.

"It's not ridiculously loud," Bobby protested. "But anyways, I asked her to go with me and I got her flowers and she said yes. So now I have a date."

"I was there," Lily commented. "It was super cute. They both looked so happy."

"Simon's going with Nancy Carmichael," Will teased. "Isn't that right, Slightly? How about you tell us all about it."

Simon turned bright red. "Shut the fuck up."

"Wait what's so bad about Nancy?" Jane asked. "I thought you fancied her since you two were in that play together. She's really nice and she has absolutely fantastic hair."

Will grinned. "It's not that she's a bad person to go to prom with, it's that Nancy asked Simon to prom, rather than the other way around."

"It was over text; it wasn't a big deal," Simon grumbled.

"The text message reads, and I quote: 'since you can't work up the nerve to ask me, I'm asking you. Simon go to prom with me'," Will laughed gleefully. "It's not even a question."

Jane nodded thoughtfully. "Well, good for Nancy for taking charge of her own relationships. It's 2014, after all, why can't a girl ask her date to go to a dance? You don't need to feel all emasculated just because a girl knows she wants to date you. Of course Simon wouldn't be having this problem if he'd bucked up and asked Nancy in the first place, but in the end, you're going to prom with a girl you like, and that's the goal anyways, right?"

"Guess so," Simon sighed.

"Well I'm taking Kristy Halk," Max announced, brimming with pride. "That's right. Kristy Halk, the hottest girl in school. Oh yeah."

"You certainly seem pleased with yourself," Jane noticed sarcastically.

"Hell yeah I am," Max agreed. "Five other guys asked her. FIVE. And she only said yes to me. We've kind of been having an on and off thing since the beginning of the year, but she's been doing that with a couple guys, so I wasn't totally sure, but she said yes and now we're going to prom together. Words cannot describe how fucking pumped I am."

"You were the sixth person to ask her?" Will marveled. "Wow. That's impressive, man."

"On the other hand, Will was the first and only person to ask me," Lily said.

"That's because everyone in the whole school knows you two are going together," Peter said. "You two are the most couple-y couple on the planet."

"What do you mean by that?" Lily asked.

Peter sighed. "You know what I mean. You two lovebirds are always holding hands, and flirting, and making out in the hallways. For like three years, too. You'd have to be blind, deaf, and an idiot to not know you guys are dating."

"You exaggerate," said Lily, eyes not leaving Will's

"You once did an entire English presentation referring to each other as 'Willsy and Lilsy'. There was definitely cooing. It was revolting"

"I just can't contain my love for her," Will said, pecking Lily on the cheek. "You're just jealous because you don't have a date."

"I am not jealous," Peter scoffed. "And I'm not the only person who doesn't have a date yet, either. Nick doesn't have a date."

"Actually, I asked Alice Garcia today in French class," Nick pointed out. "So I do have a date."

"What?" Max asked in shock. "You asked a girl to prom and you didn't tell your own brother?"

"You didn't ask," Nick said with a shrug. "It was kind of spur of the moment, anyways."

"Well I don't have a date," Tony said.

"You don't?" Peter asked.

Jane frowned. "Aren't you going with Liam?"

Tony started laughing so hard he choked on his Sprite. "Oh my god. I can't. I mean c'mon, you met the kid, do you honestly think he'd go to prom with me? Last week a girl at the grocery store asked if we were dating and he had a panic attack. He didn't tell her we weren't dating though, so I'm calling it progress."

"I'm taking that to mean Liam is not ready to go to a public dance with people he knows with you as his date."

"Definitely not," Tony confirmed. "He's finally agreed to go on real dates in public, though admittedly all in out-of-the-way restaurants in other towns, but prom is a whole other story. Maybe next year."

"You are a really good boyfriend," Jane said.

"Yes I am," Tony agreed. "And yet I'm going stag to prom."

"No you're not," Jane said. "You're going with me. I just decided."

"Seriously?" Tony asked.

Jane nodded firmly. "Of course. You're my best friend. And besides, it's not like I had my eye on anybody for a date. Also this means that Peter will be the only one of us going all alone."

"I don't need a date," Peter huffed. "The single life is the life for me."

"Oh good, at least you recognize you'll never get a date," Jane teased.

"You're an asshole, Jane."

"Why thank you for noticing." Jane checked her phone. "My god, it's nearly midnight. You lot should really be getting back to your own rooms."

"You're right, we've got a French test tomorrow," Max said.

"Shit we do?" Nick smacked his forehead. "I should look over my notes."

"Me too," Tony grumbled.

"Do you seriously all take French?" Jane asked incredulously as the boys disappeared through the ceiling one by one.

"I actually take mandarin," Simon corrected. "But I have early band practice tomorrow, so I'm going to be on my way."

"Well… bye, then…" Jane said, though by that point she and Peter were the only people left in the room. She turned to face him. "And why are you still here?"

"I take Spanish," Peter replied.

Jane nodded. "I know you're in my class."

"No tests, quizzes, band practices or anything tomorrow," Peter pointed out.

"Nothing for me either."

"In fact," Peter said, "I have no reason to go to sleep on time."

"Same."

Peter edged closer. "Since we have this extra ti-"

"The sound of your voice really turns me off so why don't you just take you shirt off instead. I'm here for your body not your brain. Or lack thereof"

"Okay then."

............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Jane couldn't understand how she kept finding Peter in her bed. Maybe it was because the end of the school year was stressful. Maybe she was excited that her dad was coming home soon. Maybe she was going insane. Yeah it was probably that.

But no matter the reason, Jane didn't get why she would even think to hook up with Peter more than the one time, let alone ten. Or fifteen. She may have lost count. It was definitely no more than twenty. After about the second time it was pretty much all over. There was sort of an unspoken agreement between them that Peter would kinda just… show up after dark. And every single time she wondered why she had done that to herself, why she kept on doing it to herself, and swore it would never happen ever again. And then one thing would lead to another and before she was lying in her bed wondering what had possessed her to sleep with Peter. Again. Sure, it had been fun, but it was Peter. He was an idiot. Hot, but a complete and utter idiot. She was constantly torn between wanting to tear him limb from limb and wanting to fuck him. Usually the latter won out. Unfortunately.

"So, uh, you and me… what exactly is going on here?" Peter asked her one day after yet another hookup.

"Huh?" Jane rolled over to look at him. "I hope you aren't honestly mixed up about this because I am definitely not about to have the sex talk with you."

"No but like what is it we're doing here," he clarified.

"I'm doing you, you're doing me; it's pretty easy to understand, honestly," she answered.

"But I mean like… us?"

Jane blinked. "Okay, I'm going to put this in really simple terms so you might understand. You. Me. Us. Having Sex. Are you still a bit foggy or have I about covered it?"

"No but like are we…" Peter sighed. "You know what never mind. Forget about it."

"Good. I don't have the time or patience to answer pointless, poorly worded questions." Jane reached onto her nightstand and grabbed her phone to check the time. "You should go away now. It's getting late and we have class in the morning. I need to get to bed and I suggest you do the same."

Peter made a face at her as he pulled on his clothing and climbed out of Jane's bed. "Better get your beauty sleep, princess."

"Better get your ugly sleep, cretin," she replied with a yawn.

He smirked as he pulled himself up through the grate. "Y'know, you lose your insulting edge at night."

She glared at him. "Bye."

When he was finally gone, Jane flopped back onto her bed and shut her eyes as that same sinking feeling settled over her. Fuck. Oh fuck it, she'd done it again. She mentally damned herself. Being a teenager was truly a curse; she was a slave to her hormones. The minute Peter took his shirt off the instincts kicked in. This was the last time for sure. The next time she saw Peter she would tell him to go away. No more of this shit. She didn't need this in her life, especially not with Peter. Never again. Ever.

 

She managed to remain celibate the next night, but then on Thursday there was an empty classroom during third period study hall and it was just too convenient an opportunity to miss. By fourth period ceramics she was too bust wallowing in self-hatred to even bother with clay and whatnot.

"Why the long face?" Tony asked, poking at her unmoving form, slumped face down on the desk.

"I'm in deep Tony," Jane grumbled in a muffled voice. "I can't tell you why, but I am in deep."

Tony raised an eyebrow. "Is it a boy?"

Silence.

"Oh my god; it's a boy!" he gasped. "Is he cute?"

Lily, who was sitting a few tables over, immediately migrated to where Jane and Tony were sitting. "Did I over hear talk of Jane getting a guy?"

"I think she's already gotten one," Tony confided.

"Shut up," Jane moaned.

"Who is it?" Lily asked.

Jane scoffed. "Please, if you think I'm going to tell you, you're completely delusional."

"Joey Markel?" Tony asked.

"Phil Garfein?" Lily offered when Jane shook her head.

"Stop asking I won't tell you who," Jane answered.

"Jake Hanson?"

"Kevin Flint?"

"Colin Yang?"

"Brett Jones-Santos?"

"Wait a second." Tony paused. "It's someone we know, isn't it? That's why she won't tell us."

After a moment, Lily gasped. "Shit, it's Peter. Oh my god-"

"What!? No it is not Peter!" Jane sputtered. "Don't be ridiculous."

"You are the absolute worst liar," Tony said with a laugh. "I can't believe it. Are you dating him or just doing him…"

"None of your business," Jane shot back.

"So not dating, then," Tony concluded.

Lily nudged her playfully. "You whore. Has this little affair been going on a long time?"

"Not really," Jane protested weakly.

"Jane and Peter sitting in a tree," Ton taunted. "K-I-S-"

"Stop it immediately!" Jane demanded, silencing her friends. "Someone might hear you!"

"They haven't yet but they will!" Lily said, whipping out her phone.

Jane swatted it out of her hand. "No! No one can know."

"Not even the Lost Boys?" Lily asked.

"Especially not the Lost Boys," Jane clarified.

"Could I at least tell Liam?" Tony asked. "He doesn't even go to school here."

"It's a secret, you hear?" Jane warned them. "Tell anyone and I'll kill you myself."

......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Three days until prom. At first, Jane had thought everyone was a little bit riled up over a dance. It wasn't like the dance was supposed to be some kind of amazing party, yet everyone was treating it like a momentous life event. She could hardly walk into a classroom without being asked who her date was or what she was wearing. But after a while, even Jane got wrapped up in the excitement; the enthusiasm was contagious. She'd even agreed to let Lily do her hair and makeup before the dance, although she was unsure what Lily could possibly muster up with Jane's mousy, shoulder length cut. At least her dress was pretty. They'd gone dress shopping the previous weekend and Jane had found a strapless A-line in her favorite shade of light purple that hit just above the knee. When she first picked it out, Lily had immediately put it back on the rack and told her to find something floor length, but once she'd realized that Jane really was too short to pull off a long dress, she'd reconsidered. Lily had picked out a sexy black number which would have looked ridiculous on anybody else but because it was Lily it just looked spectacular. In that dress, she and Will would surely be queen and king for the second year in a row, despite the fact that really only seniors are supposed to win titles.

So of course, when the Lost Boys convened in Jane's bedroom, prom was all anyone could talk about. Well, all but one person anyways.

"So Tony, we're still on for the dance, right? I can't just show up without a date, and who better to choose than the only guy I know that would never try and grind with me" Jane asked.

"How do you know I won't grind on you," Tony answered indignantly, "and about the dance…"

Jane frowned at him. "What? Have you found another date?"

"No." Tony considered. "Well, kinda, I guess. See the thing is, Liam's dad is out of town this weekend and his little sister's got a karate lesson Saturday, so if his mom leaves, he's got the house to himself so… you know…"

"Tony Dillanson, you may not abandon me at prom."

"I wouldn't be abandoning you," Tony protested. "I'd just be a little late. By like an hour tops. And it probably won't happen anyways."

"Better not," Jane warned. "I'd look so lame at prom by myself."

"For fucks sake do you ever shut up about the stupid dance?"

Jane rolled her eyes. "Sorry Pouty Pan, I forgot you were sitting there."

Peter had been in a mood for weeks now. Other than the extremely nerdy crowd, he was the only person Jane knew of who was not planning to attend prom. He'd decided not to ask anyone, and then decided that it was too lame to go to the dance without a date. There were about fifteen girls who Jane knew would have definitely gone with him, but for some unknown reason he'd refused to ask anybody and now Peter was constantly whining and complaining about how prom was stupid and only losers attend it, even though Jane was almost certain he wanted to go. Sometimes, boys are really quite stupid.

"So fucking annoying," Peter grumbled to himself.

"Uh, Jane," Bobby cut in. "You're a girl right?"

"That is accurate," Jane agreed. "And?"

"Well so you know those flower things? The ones girls wear on their arms?"

"A corsage?" Jane guessed.

Bobby nodded. "That's it. So, uh, do you know what kind I should get for Nancy?"

"Well that's a pretty broad question," Jane commented. "Just get her one that matches what she's wearing, I suppose."

"Could you be a little more specific?" Bobby asked.

Jane sighed. "Describe her dress and shoes."

"Dark blue dress and silver heels," Bobby supplied.

"White roses tied with a dark blue ribbon," Jane answered after a moment.

"Thanks," Bobby said, looking relieved. "I was kind of panicking over that one."

"Hey Jane?" Nick asked tentatively. "Could you help me pick out a corsage also?"

Simon raised his hand. "Me too?"

Jane gave an exasperated sigh. "Alright who doesn't need assistance?"

"I don't!" Will boasted.

"Oh please, Lily picked out her own corsage," Jane said accusingly. She turned to Tony and gave him an irritated look. "Even you? Really?"

"Yeah…" Tony said apologetically.

"Tony, I love you, but you're the worst date ever. I hope you're better to Liam, because if you were my boyfriend, I would totally dump you."

He shrugged. "Yeah well Liam and I can make out so there's much more incentive."

"Fair point."

It took nearly an hour to sort out what all the boys were wearing and what corsages they were buying. Peter complained basically the entire time. There were times when Jane had to sit on her hands to restrain from punching him in the mouth. Like, she got it, he hated prom and only idiots went and blah blah blah, but did he ever shut up. Tony was the last one to leave her room.

"So do you have anything planned for the rest of the night?" Tony prodded.

Jane cocked her head. "Um, no. It's kind of late to do anything don't you think?"

"Not too late for the activity I suspect you have planned," he said with a grin. "Something involving a certain red haired roommate of mine?"

Jane glared at him. "I told you we're not doing that anymore. He's being really annoying with the whole dance thing so I cut him off."

Tony raised an eyebrow. "Oh really? When was the last time?"

"For your information it was Monday at lunch," Jane said. "In that bathroom in the east wing nobody ever uses."

Tony laughed. "Wow, you've made it entire thirty six hours; that really is impressive. Probably even a world record."

"Fuck you."

"Oh come on," Tony said. "I'm only teasing. That's the longest you've gone since you started this affair."

Jane rolled her eyes. "Affair. You make it sound so scandalous."

"I mean it kind of is," Tony responded.

Jane laughed dismissively. "This coming from the boy who carried on a secret gay relationship for eight months."

"Touché."

Jane's phone buzzed and she read the text message silently.

"It's him, isn't it?" Tony said smugly.

Jane stuck out her tongue. "Oh go back to your own room, why don't you?"

"Sure thing," Tony said, already pulling himself through the vent. "Don't want to be around when you two get going."

"I hate you."

Barely a minute had passed from Tony's departure when Peter dropped in. "Hey."

"No" Jane replied without looking up from the magazine she was flipping through.

"What? Why not?" Peter whined, going to sit down on her bed.

"I'm not in the mood, feel free to show yourself out."

He looked confused. "What's the matter?"

Jane looked up. "I'm still angry with you, you know."

"What?" Peter asked breathlessly. "Why are you mad at me?"

"You're being a real jerk about the dance," Jane said accusingly.

Peter rolled his eyes. "Oh god not that again. Do you ever talk about anything else?"

"I could ask you the same question," Jane retorted. "You never stop complaining and I'm getting really fed up with you."

"Oh please," Peter scoffed. "You're fed up with me?"

"Yes!" Jane said. "Everybody's excited and you have go and piss all over their fun. Just because you decided not to ask anyone doesn't mean you should spoil everyone else's plans."

"Well I didn't want to ask anyone."

Jane threw her hands up. "Why the hell not? There are plenty of girls who would have gone with you, you just didn't have the balls to ask."

"I wasn't afraid to ask someone," Peter shot back indignantly. "I just didn't want to, okay?"

"Why not?" Jane asked. "I don't get it!"

"Seriously Jane? Are you blind?" Peter demanded. "You can't think of any reason why I wouldn't want to take just any girl as my date?"

"No?" Jane answered in bewilderment. "What the hell are you talking about, Peter?"

He opened his mouth as if to say something, but instead turned to walk away. "Oh forget it. I'm leaving."

"Good fucking riddance!" Jane called after him.

.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................  
"Wake up. C'mon we're going to be late."

Jane woke up with a start to someone shaking her arm. She squinted through bleary eyes. "Lily? What are you doing here?"

Lily was already dressed and looked pulled together and elegant in a cream colored sweater and a smart headband. Typical. She always looked good. Jane was constantly torn between wanting to be her and wanting to punch her in her perfect face. "We have an appointment in twenty minutes, and we have to take the bus. We're going to be late."

"For the nail place? That's not until eleven thirty," Jane said with a yawn.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I know; that's twenty minutes from now. Why are you still asleep?"

Jane rolled out of bed and searched her dresser for a pair of sweatpants. "The boys didn't leave until half past one last night."

"Really? Why?"

"Nick found a snake and we decided to put it in Hook's office," Jane replied, pulling on a t-shirt. After putting it one she realized it was too large to be her shirt. Come to think of it, she wasn't even entirely sure which one of the boys it belonged to. Oh well.

Lily wrinkled her nose. "Gross. Whose idea was that?"

"Mine," Jane answered. "Okay, are we ready to leave?"

"Yes."

 

Lily peered over Jane's shoulder. "Is that really the color you're getting?"

Jane looked up from the rack of nail polish. "Uh, yes?"

"Beige? Seriously?" Lily asked, raising an eyebrow.

"It's not beige; it's pink," Jane said indignantly.

"Warm Sand," Lily read off the label of the polish Jane had chosen. "This color is called Warm Sand. That's beige. And it's mostly translucent."

Jane took the bottle back. "Oh shut it. My dress is purple; that's enough color."

"No such thing," Lily insisted, bringing her own bottle of Tropical Tango to the waiting nail technician.

"So what the deal with you and Peter?" Lily asked once they'd both sat down. "You two still getting it on?"

"Lily! Keep it down," Jane hissed.

"Why? It's not like anyone we know is here."

"Still," Jane whispered.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Anyways, are you still sleeping with him?"

"Not at the moment, no," Jane answered.

Lily looked surprised. "Really? But weren't you two kind of hot and heavy like a week ago?"

"Yeah but he's being a dick. Like more than usual."

"How so?"

"I don't know, he's just acting like a pissbaby about this whole prom thing," Jane replied. "He keeps bringing it up like I care that he's not going."

"Do you?" Lily asked.

Jane scoffed. "Course not. Why would I?"

"I don't know, it seemed like you guys were starting to like each other," Lily said with a shrug.

"What?" Jane whipped her head around to look at her. "Me and Peter? Are you high?"

"It's not that crazy you were sleeping together."

"That was strictly physical," Jane insisted. "Nothing romantic about it. Just two people using each other's bodies for recreational sex. Besides, relationships are impractical."

"What do you mean 'impractical'?" Lily asked.

"Well think about it," Jane said. "Suppose we date. And it's all fine and dandy until school ends in a month and I go back to London and Peter goes back to LA. He could come visit me, but t's an eleven hour flight, nonstop, not to mention expensive. A long distance relationship, especially one that's only been going on for a month, probably doesn't work out. And also my dad is coming home from the army in mid-June, so I won't really have time to try and make it work. So I have to break up with him. Then we come back to school and it's weird for everyone. He's pissed at me for breaking up with him and tries to get back at me by sleeping with lots of girls. He gets someone pregnant, drops out of school, his parents drop him from their will, he can't get a job, his wife leaves him and his daughter because he's broke, and he turns to drinking. Suddenly Peter's thirty and a homeless alcoholic raising a kid by himself. I just can't do that to his daughter."

"Whoa," Lily said. "I think you might be overthinking this."

"Who's to say?" Jane asked. "And I don't even like him anyways."

"Yeah you keep telling yourself that" Lily grumbled.

"I don't!" Jane exclaimed.

 

It took nearly two hours for Jane to get ready, most of which was consumed with Lily's hair and makeup artistry. Jane didn't normally do anything interesting in her beauty regimen, not that there was anything wrong with complicated looks, Jane had always viewed makeup as more of a 'you do you' kind of thing. Jane was simply too lazy and uncoordinated to do anything special on her face, so Lily insisted she get to create a prom look. Jane hadn't been thrilled at the idea of sitting in a chair for an hour while Lily contemplated eye shadows, but it made her friend happy, so there wasn't really a point in refusing.

"Almost finished?" Jane asked impatiently.

"Yeah one sec," Lily said, carefully adjusting Jane's hair. "Okay. Perfect. You can look now."

Jane spun around in her desk chair and looked in the mirror. "Holy shit."

"I know," Lily squealed.

"I look fucking hot," Jane said incredulously. "Honestly. How the hell did you get my hair to look like that?"

"Well I left them in the rollers for a really long time," Lily replied. "Your hair really doesn't hold a curl."

"I knew that," Jane agreed. "And it's not very long, so I've never really bothered. Maybe I should more often."

"I mean it wasn't exactly speedy, but you look perfect."

Jane leaned into the mirror. "The eyeliner is so straight."

"Lots of practice," Lily said gesturing to her own flawless eye makeup.

Jane spun her chair back around to face Lily. "You know, I was worried you'd make me look like a hooker. But you made me look beautiful."

"You always look beautiful," Lily said fondly.

"Aw, Lily. You're beautiful too." Jane stood up and hugged her.

"Let's go find the boys," Lily said, grabbing her hand.

Jane stumbled. "Whoa. Not so fast. These are really high heels."

 

The dance was in the gym. It looked like pretty much your typical high school dance - crepe paper streamers, cardboard stars hanging from the ceiling, punch - but with the added element of wealth that comes with being at a prep school - expensive DJ equipment, little hors d'oeuvres, an actual ice sculpture. The Lost Boys were standing by the door with their dates, with the exception of Tony and Will, of course. They both came over to greet the girls.

"Jane you look so pretty!" Tony said, giving her a hug.

"Thanks, you too," she replied, smiling. "Your tie even matches my… oh god, what are you two doing"

Will briefly removed his tongue from his girlfriend's mouth to look at Jane. "What?"

Jane smirked. "You do know that when people talk about losing their virginity on prom night they mean after the dance, right?"

"Yeah, because tonight will definitely be our first time," Lily snorted.

Tony rolled his eyes. "Straight people just can't keep it together."

"Oh please," Jane scoffed.

"What?"

"I'm just saying that you aren't in a position to judge anybody's sex life," Jane teased. "It's not like you're celibate."

"And you are, Little Miss Booty Call?" Tony retorted. "Peter's my roommate. I know how often he's in your bed and not his own."

"Shut the fuck up. You nearly ditched me at prom to spend time with your boyfriend."

Tony shrugged. "Yeah he texted me this morning that I couldn't come over because his mom was hosting some church group thing at his house. So that sucks."

"Oh what a nightmare," Jane said sarcastically. "Now I suppose you're just stuck here with me, honoring your prior commitment. Sounds like torture really."

He stuck out his tongue at her. "You want to dance or what?"

She thrust out her hand. "To the dance floor."

He took her hand and they walked to middle of the gym. Tony wasn't very good at dancing, although he appeared to be enjoying himself a lot. It was so ridiculous and embarrassing that Jane was sure he was doing it on purpose, but Bobby assured her that Tony was in fact just a terrible dancer.

"You dance like a white dad," she shouted over the music in between fits of laughter.

"Do not!" Tony yelled back.

"Look at yourself; you're doing jazz hands for god's sake."

"You wish you were as cool as-" The jazz hands ceased. "Holy shit."

"What is it?" Jane turned to see Liam, standing in the doorway, looking as though he might have a heart attack. "Holy shit."

Tony ran over to Liam, who pulled him into the hallway. A few moments later Tony came back through the door.

"Oh my god, he came to prom?" Jane whispered excitedly.

Tony laughed. "Yeah he came to prom to reveal to everyone here that he's dating me, a guy. He also told his parents, and ended world hunger, and rode here on a unicorn."

"I take it you're being sarcastic?"

"Get real, Jane. Liam can barely even say the word 'boyfriend', let alone tell people he has one."

Jane furrowed her eyebrows. "Then why is he here…"

"Oh, right. Um, I have to leave," Tony said apologetically.

"You asshole, you're leaving me alone at prom?"

"Liam's uncle died."

"Oh my god, really? I am so sorry," Jane said. "I thought you were just ditching me to go fuck at his house. Is he okay?"

"Oh no, Liam's great," Tony reassured her. "You misunderstood. This guy was a long lost uncle; Liam never met him. I have to leave because his parents are in the will, so they're flying to Kentucky for the hearing. And his little sister is staying at her friend's house, meaning Liam has the whole house to himself. So, uh, we are actually going to his house to fuck."

"Ah then we're back at 'you asshole'," Jane grumbled. "I cannot believe you."

Tony pouted. "C'mon, Jane. We never get to do domestic stuff. Fucking in closets is great, don't get me wrong, but I'm missing out on all those cutesy watching-movies-on-the-couch and eating-food-together kinds of things. Please let me have this."

"Bullshit, you can do that in two hours when this is over. I'm not falling for your sob story."

Tony started retreating towards the door. "I'm taking that as a 'go on, have fun'. Thanks for understanding, bye!"

"I do NOT understand, dick face," she called after him, but he was already gone.

Jane sighed and went to sit down next to Simon and Nancy, who were chatting over punch and appetizers.

Nancy smiled at her. "Jane, hey! I love your dress."

"You too," Jane said, sitting down and grabbing a bacon wrapped date off Simon's plate.

"Something the matter?" Simon asked.

"Yeah. Tony ditched me."

"You came with Tony Dillanson?" Nancy asked. "Isn't he gay?"

Jane grabbed another snack. "Uh huh. But he was supposed to be here with me as a friend, but instead ran off with his boyfriend."

"So that's why the kid from Fredrick High was here," Nancy concluded. "Luke Porterhall or whatever. He's the boyfriend, right."

"It's Liam but damn, you're perceptive," Jane said. "Promise you won't tell anybody, okay?"

"Hey, it's all good," Nancy replied. "Tell them I think they're cute, though."

"Will do," Jane agreed.

"Hey Simon, could you get us some more punch?" Nancy asked.

"Sure," Simon said, walking off to the snack table.

Jane looked questioningly at Nancy. "You have, like, a full glass of punch."

"Yeah I know, I just like to look at him in those pants," Nancy said, gazing intently at Simon's retreating figure. "His skinny twig legs turn me on."

"Well alright then," Jane said.

Nancy glanced over Jane's shoulder. "Ooh, I think somebody's looking for you."

"Oh god, is it that creepy Philip kid?" Jane sighed. "Ugh, he's always grabbing my ass in English class. I'll tell him to fuck off."

Jane spun around in her chair to see whoever it was Nancy was talking about. The words 'go away' died in her throat, the moment she saw who it was. Not creepy Philip Morgan. Not Simon back from the punch bowl. Not Tony changing his mind about abandoning Jane.

It was Peter.

.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................  
It took Jane a moment to comprehend the fact that Peter was standing in front of her, in a suit, at prom.

"You came," she noted.

He grinned. "I changed my mind."

Jane punched him in the arm. "What the fuck; seriously? You make such a big fuss about how prom is for losers and now-"

"Dance with me," Peter interrupted. It was less of a request than a command.

She eyed him suspiciously. "You want to slow dance? Are you drunk?"

"No," Peter said indignantly. He reconsidered. "Well, maybe a little bit. Do want to dance with me or not?"

"Aren't you a charmer?" Jane offered him a hand and walked with him to the dance floor. Even in heels, she was a good four inches smaller than him and had to reach to put her hands on his shoulders. "So why did you decide to come?"

"Tony texted me that you were alone," Peter replied. His hands on her waist shouldn't have made her feel so uncomfortable, given that they had been there so many times before. Perhaps it was because they were both fully clothed.

"You came here just to see me?" Jane asked in surprise. "That's actually… really nice."

He snorted. "You don't have to sound so shocked. Are you still pissed at me?"

"Nah," Jane said, meaning it. "I think we could just go back to whatever we were doing before you started acting like an idiot."

Peter opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again

She looked up at him. "What?"

"I don't… I don't want to keep hooking up with you."

"Oh." Jane couldn't help but feel disappointed. "Have you decided to find a girlfriend or something?"

"No, it's not about a girl," Peter said. "Well it is. I mean, not like you think, but I guess it's kind of-"

"Spit it out, Peter."

"You know, Jane? You can be really stupid sometimes," Peter said.

Jane pulled away from him. "Excuse me?"

Peter nodded. "You heard me. Like how we've been together-ish for weeks and you refuse to talk about it, and you're blatantly ignoring all the obvious signals I am sending you, and I mean really obvious signals. Somehow, you can't connect the dots even though I keep trying to talk about us, and I couldn't take anyone else to prom, and even tonight I had to take a couple shots before meeting you because I was freaking out. Like, how can you not tell? I mean really Jane, are you going to make me say it out loud?"

"What are you going on about?" Jane demanded.

"Oh nothing important," Peter said sarcastically. "Just me having a personal crisis"

"A 'personal crisis'? About what"

"Love" Peter mumbled

"For fucks sake Peter, what?" Jane asked

"You. I'm in love with you. Kind of," Peter shot back with biting sarcasm.

"You're what?"

The annoyance disappeared from Peter's face, replaced with a sort of timidness. "I might be a tiny bit in love with you. Maybe. I don't know."

"You really must be drunk," Jane said defiantly. "Because you are not in love with me."

"Oh yeah?" Peter asked. "Why the hell not?"

Jane felt flustered. "Because, Peter. We aren't supposed to be together; it's not like that with us. You're… you know, captain of the football team and you're tall and handsome and people like you, girls like you, and I'm just… me. Small, stubborn me. Sure, we hooked up a couple times and it was brilliant but, I mean, you could have any girl you wanted. You don't really want to date me; it isn't… logical."

"I don't want any girl, Jane, I want you," Peter said.

"Really," Jane asked, folding her arms. "Why?"

"Because!" Peter said desperately. "I don't know, well, uh because you're funny and smart, like one of the smartest people I know, and you don't take any shit from anybody, which is like, really hot. And because you're nice everyone, even people you don't really have to be nice to, like my little sister and Tony's panicky boyfriend."

He paused for a moment to breathe and collect his thoughts. "Um, you stand by your beliefs and stand up for yourself and you get so intense that sometimes it scares me and… and you have pretty eyes and a pretty smile and you're just overall really pretty and I like your laugh and your brutal honesty and the way you say my name like "Pee-teh", and about two million other things. And I know I'm rambling, I planned this out to be much smoother but like, I just can't believe that somehow, the traits that come to your mind are small and stubborn? I mean, you are small and stubborn, definitely, but not, like, just that. C'mon, Janie. You're always thinking about what's sensible and rational and I am so fucking sick of it. We're seventeen, Jane, you can live a little. Take a chance. Fuck logic."

For a moment, Jane could do nothing but stare at him.

"So?" Peter prompted.

"Fine." Jane grabbed him by the tie and pulled his mouth to hers and she didn't even care that people could see them.

"So does that mean you'll date me?" Peter asked, grinning stupidly.

"Well you might love me, after all," she answered. "And who knows, maybe I love you too."

Peter's eyes lit up. He grabbed her waist and spun her around, smiling so hard he couldn't kiss her properly.

"Jesus Peter, put me down," Jane said, laughing and not really meaning it. "People are staring."

"Sorry," he said breathlessly. "Just excited. And I forgot to tell you how beautiful you look."

"Thank Lily," Jane responded, resting her head on his shoulder.

"She did a good job," Peter noted, swaying to the music.

And dancing there with Peter, Jane decided that everything was perfect in a way she never expected. In August, she would have laughed if someone told her that the Lost Boys would be her best friends, that Peter would be her date at prom, that, maybe, she might even love him. Hell, if you told her yesterday, she'd have laughed. Even now, in her head, it sounded kind of ridiculous when she thought it through, but hey, if there was ever an appropriate time to be cheesy and embarrassing, it was when you're seventeen years old at prom.

"Jane, I'm trying to be romantic and all," Peter whispered into her hair. "But I'm honestly so hopped up on adrenaline that slow dancing is a bit challenging."

"I think you might be feeling the alcohol over the adrenaline." Jane kissed him. "I'm tasting vodka, correct?"

Peter nodded. "Yeah, and I used Five Hour Energy as a chaser."

"You are so stupid," Jane told him. "Never change."

"I'll try," he said.

"Okay, so how about go back to my room?" Jane proposed. "Because while that suit looks fantastic on you, it would look even better on my floor."

"You sure you don't want to stay?" Peter asked. "I mean, I know you've been looking forward to prom and everything?"

"Yeah, well tonight didn't exactly turn out like I planned, did it? I mean, this is already so far away from what I expected that we might as well just fuck it all. So, let's ditch the dance and head to my basement and this time you don't have to sneak back to your room after, or pretend it didn't happen."

"That's an awesome plan," Peter said, grabbing her hand and pulling her towards the door.

They ran down the hallway of the main building, laughing and shouting. The school was empty anyways, so it's not like they had to worry about running into any teachers or anything. Or that would have made sense anyways.

"Running amok, are we?" came a voice from a classroom.

They stopped dead in their tracks. "Professor Hook. Didn't see you there."

"Jane Darling and… Peter Pan," Hook said. Peter's name sounded like a curse word in his mouth. "How are you tonight, Peter? Enjoying prom?"

"Yes, sir," Peter replied.

"Are you alright?" Hook asked, completely ignoring Jane. "You seem dazed. I certainly hope you've been acting responsibly. Drinking, for example, would result in an immediate expulsion, after all. And we wouldn't want that, now would we?"

"No, sir," Peter managed.

Hook smiled coldly, as though he had just won a great victory. Jane held her breath.

"James!"

Hook looked up, surprised, to see Mrs. Crock walking towards them. "Delia! What are you doing here?"

"Oh it was getting really warm in the gym and I thought I'd take a little stroll. What are you doing here with these students?"

Hook winced at the sound of her shoes as she walked closer. Click click click. "I was just making sure Mr. Pan and Ms. Darling were not up to anything."

"Is it entirely necessary to reprimand them for being a bit loud on prom night, James?" Mrs. Crock's smile was unwavering.

"I was only looking to confirm that these two weren't engaging in any deviant behavior," Hook said. "The boy doesn't seem to have his wits about him. And leaving in the middle of the dance seems suspicious, no?"

Mrs. Crock nodded. "Certainly in other circumstances, it might seem this way. But as Jane and Peter left the gym, I was certain I heard them talking about how Peter here was feeling faint and Jane was merely escorting him back to his dorm, like a good friend. Isn't that right, Peter?"

"Yes," Jane answered for him.

"But-" Hook started.

"Why don't you go supervise the dance, professor?"

Hooked grimaced, shot Peter a final look of hatred, and made his way towards the gymnasium.

Mrs. Crock turned to face Peter and James and raised an eyebrow.

"Thanks," Peter said, graciously.

"Why are you thanking me? I was merely upholding my duties as a teacher at this school."

"Thanks anyways," Jane repeated.

She smiled fondly. "I'm glad to see the two of you finally make it official. Took you long enough. I won a lot of money tonight."

"Wait, the teachers were betting on us…?" Jane asked.

"Certainly not, that would be inappropriate," Mrs. Crock replied. "Almost as bad as showing up at a school event drunk. Alright, hurry along, then."

They watched her retreating figure re-enter the gymnasium in a lingering state of shock.

"The fuck just happened?" Peter asked, blinking.

"Scary teacher saved your drunk ass from expulsion," Jane replied.

"Oh cool. You still wanna hook up?"

She grabbed his head and kissed him. "Fuck yeah."

He broke out into a smile. "Well c'mon, then."

They ran, hand in hand through the damp grass of the courtyard towards the dorm building, laughing all the way.

"Wait, not so fast," Jane stopped him, panting. "These shoes are killing me. So cute, but so uncomfortable."

"I have a solution," Peter announced breathlessly.

He scooped her up suddenly and Jane yelped. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Carrying you," he responded as he continued walking with Jane in his arms.

"I see that. Put me down," Jane commanded.

"Never."

Jane sighed and leaned her head against his shoulder. She supposed it was a bit romantic. "Idiot."

He kissed her hair. "Yeah, I know."

Jane supposed that it was a bit romantic to be there, on prom night, in the arms of a funny, attractive boy who she might even love. Jane thought back to August, when she'd driven with her mother up the long road to Neverland Academy, absolutely hellbent on hating everything about it. And now she had a dingy basement she'd grown to love and a ridiculous group of boys who hung out there. With them, Jane had disobeyed Hook, gotten very drunk, stolen a painting, slow danced for a six year old, been abandoned at prom by her extremely thirsty best friend, and fallen in what might be love. And everything was different than what she'd planned but everything was good, and Jane thought that was enough.

**Author's Note:**

> Completed. Thanks for reading :)


End file.
